T.  /  //^rv^^/-^ 


Columbia  SSnibersitp 
in  tfje  Citp  of  i5etD  gorfe 


LIBRARY 


■^vjjJL,..^^ 


GIVEN  BY 


U  ^' 


THE  EASTERN  NATIONS 
AND  GREECE 


BY 


PHILIP  VAN   NESS   MYERS.  ,., 

Author  of  "A  History  of  GrEeck,''  'f.RoRYF,  i  Its  k^st',  and* 
Fall,"  and  "A  General  History"  '      '  * 


REFISED  EDITION 


fpb 


P£^" 


GINN  &  COMPA 


W' 


^^ 


*   BOSTON  •  NEW   YORK  •  qHICAGO  •  LONfiON 


KktereIJ*  %T  Stationers'  Hall 


♦•      '  Copyright,  1904,  by 
PHItlP  VAN  NESS  MYERS 

*•        ;AtL    ^IGSITC    RESERVED 
911. 4 


530 

K13^X 

CTIjc   atljenaeum   ; 

^xtii 

GINN   &   COMPANY 
PRIETORS  .  BOSTON 

■  PRO- 
.  U.S.A. 

PREFACE   TO   REVISED   EDITION 


This  little  volume  comprises  the  first  half  of  my  revised  Ancient 
History  (1904),  with  only  slight  changes  in  the  system  of  cross 
references  and  in  other  minor  features,  made  with  the  object  of 
rendering  the  book  independent  of  the  chapters  on  Rome. 

I  would  here,  repeating  acknowledgments  made  in  the  preface 
of  the  Ancient  History^  make  grateful  mention  of  the  scholarly 
assistance  given  me  by  Professor  Nathaniel  Schmidt  of  Cornell 
University  in  the  revision  of  the  proof  sheets  of  the  Oriental  part 
of  the  work,  and  of  the  kindly  and  valuable  aid  I  have  received 
from  Dr.  Rufus  B.  Richardson,  for  many  years  director  of  the 
American  School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens,  in  reading  and 
correcting  the  proofs  of  the  Greek  portion. 

P.  V.  N.  M. 

College  Hill,  Ohio, 
June,  1904. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

List  of  Illustrations ix 

List  of  Plates xii 

Lists  of  Maps xiii 

CHAPTER 

I.    General  Introduction :  Prehistoric  Times i 

II.    Races  and  Groups  of  Peoples  at  the  Dawn  of  Histoiy      .     .  14 


PART  I  — THE  EASTERN  NATIONS 

III.  Ancient  Egypt  (from  about  5000  to  30  B.C.) 20 

I.    The  Land  and  the  People 20 

^                       II.    Political  History 23 

III.    Religion,  Arts,  and  General  Culture 32 

IV.  The  Early  City-States  of  Babylonia  and  the  Old  Babylonian 

Empire  (from  about  5000  to  iioo  B.C.)  ....  46 

I.    Political  History 46 

II.    Arts  and  General  Culture 51 

V.    The  Assyrian  Empire  (from  an  unknown  date  to  606  B.C.)    .  62 

I.    Political  Histoiy 62 

II.    The  Civilization 66 

VI.    The  Chaldean  Empire  (625-538  B.C.) 72 

VII.    The  Hebrews 75 

VIII.    The  Phoenicians 83 

IX.    The  Persian  Empire  (558-330  B.C.) 88 

I.    Political  History 88 

II.    Government,  Religion,  and  Arts 94 

X.    India  and  China        98 

I.    India 98 

II.    China 102 

V 


vi  CONTENTS 


PART  II  — GREECE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI.    The  Land  and  the  People 107 

XII.    Prehistoric  Times  according  to  Greek  Accounts    .     .     .     .  115 

XIII.    The  Inheritance  of  the  Historic  Greeks 127 

I.  Pohtical  Institutions 127 

II.  Religious  Ideas  and  Institutions 129 

III.    Language,  Mythology,  Literature,  and  Art       .     .  138 

XIV.   The  Growth  of  Sparta 141 

XV.    The  Age  of  Greek  Colonization  (about  750-600  B.C.)     .     .  152 

XVI.    The  Age  of  the  Tyrants  (about  650-500  B.C.) 162 

XVII.    The  History  of  Athens  up  to  the  Persian  Wars     ....  168 
XVIII.    Hellas  Overshadowed  by  the  Rise  of  Persia:  Prelude  to  the 

Persian  Wars 178 

XIX.    The  Persian  Wars  (500-479  B.C.) 183 

XX.    The  Making  of  the  Athenian  Empire  (479-445  B.C.)      .     .  200 

XXL    The  Age  of  Pericles  (445-431  B.C.) 210 

XXII.    The  Peloponnesian  War  (431-404  B.C.) 220 

I.  The  War  to  the  Peace  of  Nicias  (431-421  B.C.)     .  220 

II.  From  the  Peace  of  Nicias  to  the  Defeat  of  the 

Sicilian  Expedition  (421-413  B.C.) 229 

III.  From  the  Sicilian  Disaster  to  the  Fall  of  Athens  : 

the  Decelean  War  (413-404  B.C.) 237 

XXIII.  The  Spartan  and  the  Theban  Supremacy  (404-362  B.C.)     .  244 

I.    The  Spartan  Supremacy  (404-371  B.C.)  ....  244 

II.    The  Ascendancy  of  Thebes  (371-362  B.C.)  .     .     .  254 

XXIV.  The  Greeks  of  Western  Hellas  (413-336  B.C.)       ....  259 
XXV.    The  Rise  of  Macedonia  :  Reign  of  Philip  II  (359-336  B.C.)  266 

XXVI.    Alexander  the  Great  (336-323  B.C.) 273 

XXVII.    The  Grceco-Oriental  World  from  the  Death  of  Alexander 
to   the  Conquest  of  Greece   by  the   Romans 

(323-146  B.C.) 286 

XXVIII.    Greek  Architecture,  Sculpture,  and  Painting 294 

I.   Architecture 295 

II.  Sculpture 3°° 

III.  Painting       3°^ 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIX.    Greek  Literature -112 

I.    Introductoiy 012 

II.    The  Period  before  475  b.c 313 

III.  The  Attic  or  Golden  Age  (475-300  B.C.)      .     .     .  315 

IV.  The  Alexandrian  Age  (300-146  B.C.)       ....  324 
XXX.    Greek  Philosophy  and  Science 327 

XXXI.    Social  Life  of  the  Greeks 340 

Bibliography 350 

Index  and  Pronouncing  Vocabulary 355 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

After  photographs,  and  from  cuts  taken  from  Baumeister's  Denkmaeler  dcs  klassiscken 

Altertums,  Oscar  Jaeger's  Weltgeschkhte,  Schreiber's  ^  2?/rt5  ^ 

Classical  A  ntiquities,  and  other  reliable  sources. 


PAGE 


FIG. 

1.  The  Earliest  Implements  of  Paleolithic  Type 3 

2.  Engraving  of  a  Reindeer 4 

3.  Engraving  of  a  Mammoth  on  the  Fragment  of  a  Tusk    ....  4 

4.  A  Prehistoric  Egyptian  Tomb 5 

5.  Primitive  Methods  of  making  Fire 7 

6.  Indian  Picture  Writing 10 

7.  Negro  Captives        15 

8.  Egyptian  Scene        20 

9.  Plowing  and  Sowing  in  Ancient  Egypt 21 

ID.  Reaping  the  Grain  in  Ancient  Egypt 21 

11.  Ivory  Statuette  of  a  King  of  the  First  Dynasty 23 

12.  A  Detail  of  the  Great  Pyramid 24 

13.  Khufu,  Builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid 25 

14.  The  "Sheikh-el-Beled" 26 

15.  Tell  el  Amarna  Letter 28 

16.  Phalanx  of  the  Khita        29 

17.  Rameses  II  charging  the  Foe        3° 

18.  Brick-Making  in  Ancient  Egypt 31 

19.  Forms  of  Egyptian  Writing ZZ 

20.  The  Rosetta  Stone 34 

21.  Two  Royal  Names  in  Hieroglyphics 35 

22.  Mummy  of  a  Sacred  Bull •  3^ 

23.  Profile  of  Rameses  II 3^ 

24.  Mummy  Case  with  Mummy 39 

25.  "  Servant  for  the  Underworld  " 4° 

26.  The  Judgment  of  the  Dead 4i 

27.  An  Egyptian  Obelisk        42 

28.  Tubular  Drill  Hole 42 

29.  A  Scarab  Amulet 43 

30.  Philae, "the  Pearl  of  Egypt  " 45 

31.  The  Babil  Mound  at  Babylon  as  it  appeared  in  iSii        ....  46 

32.  Ancient  Babylonian  Canals       47 

T^^.  Door  Socket  of  Sargon  I 49 

34.  Impression  of  a  Seal  of  Sargon  I •  5° 

ix 


X  LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG.  PAGE 

35.  Excavation  at  the  Temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur 52 

36.  Arch  discovered  at  Nippur        53 

37.  Cuneiform  Writing 53 

38.  Table  showing  the  Development  of  the  Cuneifonn  Writing    .     .  54 

39.  Contract  Tablet 55 

40.  Writing  Exercise  Tablets  of  a  Child 58 

41.  Hammurabi  receiving  the  Code  from  the  Sun-god 59 

42.  An  Assyrian  Winged  Bull 62 

43.  Restoration  of  Sargon's  Palace  at  Khorsabad 64 

44.  An  Assyrian  King  (?  Sennacherib) 65 

45.  Restoration  of  a  Court  in  Sargon's  Palace  at  Khorsabad    ...  67 

46.  Emblem  of  Assyrian  Deity        68 

47.  Transport  of  a  Winged  Bull 68 

48.  Assyrians  flaying  Prisoners  alive        69 

49.  Lion  Hunt 70 

50.  A  Wounded  Lioness 71 

51.  The  Jewish  Place  of  Wailing 77 

52.  Species  of  the  Murex 83 

53.  Phoenician  Galley 84 

54.  Phoenician  Alphabet  and  Cuneiform  Characters 86 

55.  Croesus  on  the  Pyre 90 

56.  The  Tomb  of  Cyrus  at  Pasargadae 90 

57.  Insurgent  Captives  brought  before  Darius 91 

58.  The  Behistun  Rock 92 

59.  Royal  Persian  Tombs  near  Persepolis 93 

60.  The  King  in  Combat  with  a  Monster 95 

61.  The  Ruins  of  Persepolis 96 

62.  Chinese  Characters 103 

63.  The  Lions'  Gate  at  Mycenae 108 

64.  The  Plain  of  Olympia 109 

65.  Combat  between  Achilles  and  Hector 115 

66.  Battle  between  Greeks  and  Amazons ,»    .     .  117 

67.  Battle  at  the  Ships  between  the  Greeks  and  Trojans      .     .     ,     .  119 

68.  Hissarlik,  the  Probable  Site  of  Ancient  Troy 120 

69.  Grave  Circle  at  Mycenae 121 

70.  Inlaid  Sword  Blades  found  at  Mycenae 121 

71.  Gallery  in  the  South  Wall  at  Tiryns 125 

72.  Fifty-Oared  Greek  Boat       126 

73.  Group  of  Greek  Gods  and  Goddesses 131 

74.  The  Carrying  off  of  Persephone  by  Hades  to  the  Underworld     .  131 

75.  Apollo        133 

76.  Greek  Runners 136 

77.  Sparta,  wuth  the  Ranges  of  the  Taygetus  in  the  Background  .     .  142 

78.  Ruined  Temples  at  Paestum 158 

79.  Coin  of  Cyrene 159 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

FIG.  PAGE 

80.  Coin  of  Corinth 160 

81.  Athens 168 

82.  The  Athenian  Tyrannicides,  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  ...  174 

83.  Greek  Warriors  preparing  for  Battle 183 

84.  HopUte,  or  Heavy- Armed  Greek  Warrior 198 

85.  Pericles 210 

86.  The  Bema,  or  Orator's  Stand,  on  the  Pnyx  Hill,  Athens    .     ,     .  211 

87.  The  Caryatid  Porch  of  the  Erechtheum 215 

88.  The  so-called  Theseum  at  Athens 216 

89.  Alcibiades 231 

90.  Coin  of  Syracuse 264 

91.  Demosthenes 268 

92.  Alexander  the  Great 274 

93.  The  so-called  "  Sarcophagus  of  Alexander  " 284 

94.  The  Dying  Gaul 288 

95.  Coin  of  Athens 293 

96.  Orders  of  Greek  Architecture 295 

97.  The  Parthenon 298 

98.  The  Theater  of  Dionysus  at  Athens 299 

99.  The  Wrestlers       301 

100.  Stele  of  Aristion 302 

loi.  The  Discobolus 302 

102.  Athenian  Youth  in  Procession 303 

103.  Athena  Parthenos 304 

104.  Head  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  by  Phidias 305 

105.  Nike  or  Victory  of  Paeonius 305 

106.  Hermes  with  the  Infant  Dionysus 306 

107.  The  Nike  of  Samothrace 307 

108.  The  Laocoon 3^8 

109.  Aphrodite  of  Melos 308 

no.  Portrait  in  Wax  Paint 309 

111.  Homer 3^3 

112.  Bacchic  Procession 316 

113.  Sophocles 3^8 

114.  Euripides 3^9 

115.  Herodotus 3^1 

116.  Thucydides 3-^ 

117.  Socrates       33^ 

118.  Plato        33- 

119.  Aristotle 333 

120.  A  Greek  School    34° 

121.  A  Banquet  Scene  (Greek) 345 


LIST    OF   PLATES 


FACING 
PAGE 


PLATE 

I.    Babylon  and  its  Three  Towers.     (A  restoration)      Frontispiece 
II.    The   Great   Sphinx  and  the   Pyramids   of   Gizeh.     (From   a 

photograph) 24 

III.  Fagade  of  Rock  Temple  at  Ipsambul.     (From  a  photograph)  28 

IV.  The  Great  Hall  of  Columns  at  Karnak.    (From  a  photograph)  42 
V.    The  Vaphio    Cups    and    their    Scrolls.     (From  photographs 

and  drawings) 122 

VI.    The  Acropolis  of  Athens.     (From  a  photograph) 168 

VII.    The  Piraeus  and  the  Long  Walls  of  Athens.     (A  restoration)  208 

VIII.    The  Acropolis  of  Athens.     (A  restoration) 216 

IX.    The  Mourning  Athena.     (From  a  photograph) 224 

X.    General  View  of  Olympia.     (A  restoration) 298 


LISTS  OF  MAPS 


COLORED    MAPS 

After  Kiepert,  Schrader,  Droysen,  vSpruner-Sieglin,  and  Freeman.     The  Freeman  charts 

have  been  so  modified  by  omissions  and  additions  that  most  of  them  as 

they  here  appear  are  practically  new  maps. 

PAGE 

1.  The  Ancient  World,  showing  Areas  occupied  by  Hamites,  Sem- 

ites, and  Aryans 14 

2.  Ancient  Egypt 20 

3.  Egyptian  Empire,  about  1450  b.c 30 

4.  Assyrian  Empire,  about  660  B.c 64 

5.  Median  and  Babylonian  Empires,  about  600  b.c 72 

6.  The  Division  of  Solomon's  Kingdom,  about  953  B.C 78 

7.  The  Persian  Empire  at  its  Greatest  Extent,  about  500  B.C.      .     .  92 

8.  General  Reference  Map  of  Ancient  Greece 108 

9.  Greece  and  the  Greek  Colonies I54 

[Q.    The  Greek  World  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War, 

431  B.C 220 

[I.    Empire  of  Alexander  the  Great,  about  323  B.c 274 


SKETCH    MAPS 

1.  The  Tigris-Euphrates  Valley 48 

2.  The  World  according  to  Homer 13° 

3.  Magna  Graecia  and  Sicily i57 

4.  Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Marathon 187 

5.  Map  illustrating  Invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes 194 

6.  Athens  and  Salamis ^97 

7.  Athens  and  her  Long  Walls 207 

8.  Pylos 227 

9.  March  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks 245 


yiii 


THE  EASTERN  NATIONS 
AND  GREECE 

CHAPTER  I 
GENERAL  INTRODUCTION:   PREHISTORIC  TIMES 

1.  The  Antiquity  of  Man.  — We  do  not  know  when  man  first 
appeared  upon  the  earth.  We  only  know  that  in  ages  long  past, 
when  both  the  climate  and  the  outline  of  the  continents  were 
very  different  from  what  they  are  at  present,  primitive  man  roamed 
over  them  with  animals  now  extinct ;  and  that,  about  5000  B.C., 
when  the  historic  curtain  first  rises,  in  some  favored  regions,  as 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates,  there  were  nations 
and  civilizations  already  venerable  with  age,  and  possessing  arts, 
governments,  and  institutions  that  bear  evidence  of  slow  growth 
through  very  long  periods  of  time. 

2.  The  Prehistoric  and  the  Historic  Age.  — The  uncounted  mil- 
lenniums which  lie  back  of  the  time  when  man  began  to  keep 
written  records  of  what  he  thought  and  did  and  of  what  befell 
him,  are  called  the  Prehistoric  Age. 

The  comparatively  few  centuries  of  human  life  which  are  made 
known  to  us  through  written  records  comprise  the  Historic  Age. 
In  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates  there  have  been  dis- 
covered written  records  which  were  made  at  least  four  or  five 
thousand  years  before  Christ ;  so  we  say  that  the  historic  period 
began  in  those  lands  six  or  seven  thousand  years  ago.  On  the 
island  of  Crete  numerous  inscriptions  have  recently  been  found 
that  apparently  were  written  as  early  as  the  fourth  millennium  b.c. 
These,  however,  have  not  yet  been  deciphered.  Some  written 
records  used  by  Chinese  historians  seem  to  go  back  to  the  third 


2  PREHISTORIC   TIMES 

millennium  before  our  era.  In  other  regions  the  historic  period 
still  begins  for  us  at  a  much  later  date.  Thus  the  truly  historic 
age  did  not  open  in  Greece  and  Italy  until  about  800  or  700  B.C., 
and  for  the  countries  of  Northern  Europe,  speaking  broadly,  not 
until  about  the  beginning  of  our  era. 

3.  How  we  learn  about  Prehistoric  Man.  —  A  knowledge  of  what 
prehistoric  man  was  and  what  he  did  is  indispensable  to  the  his- 
torical student ;  for  the  dim  prehistoric  ages  of  human  life  form 
the  childhood  of  the  race,  —  and  the  man  cannot  be  understood 
without  at  least  some  knowledge  of  the  child. 

But  how,  in  the  absence  of  written  records,  are  we  to  find  out 
anything  about  prehistoric  man  ?  In  many  ways  we  are  able  to 
learn  much  about  him.  Thus,  for  instance,  since  we  now  know  evo- 
lution to  be  the  law  of  life  on  the  earth,  we  may  regard  existing 
savage  and  semi-savage  races  as  representing  the  prehistoric  state 
of  the  advanced  races.  As  it  has  been  put,  what  they  now  are 
we  once  were.  So  by  acquainting  ourselves  with  the  life  and 
customs  of  these  laggard  races  we  acquaint  ourselves  with  our 
own  prehistoric  past  and  that  of  all  other  civilized  peoples. 

Again,  the  men  who  lived  before  the  dawn  of  history  left 
behind  them  many  things  which  witness  as  to  what  manner  of 
men  they  were.  In  ancient  gravel  beds  along  the  streams  where 
they  fished  or  hunted,  in  the  caves  which  afforded  them  shelter, 
in  the  refuse  heaps  (kitchen  middens)  on  the  sites  of  their  villages 
or  camping  places,  or  in  the  graves  where  they  laid  away  their 
dead,  we  find  great  quantities  of  tools  and  weapons  and  other 
articles  shaped  by  their  hands.  From  these  things  w^e  learn  what 
skill  these  early  men  had  acquired  as  tool  makers  and  to  what 
degree  of  culture  they  had  attained.^ 

4.  Divisions  of  Prehistoric  Times. — The  long  period  of  prehis- 
toric times  is  divided  into  different  ages  which  are  named  from 
the  material  which  man  used  in  the  manufacture  of  his  weapons 
and  tools.    The  earliest  epoch  is  known  as  the  PaleoHthic  or  Old 

1  Besides  these  material  things  which  can  be  seen  and  handled,  there  are  many 
immaterial  things,  as,  for  instance,  language,  which  light  up  for  us  the  dim  ages 
before  history  (see  sec.  11). 


THE   PALEOLITHIC   OR   OLD    STONE  AGE 


Stone  Age  ;  the  following  one  as  the  Neolithic  or  New  Stone  Age ; 
and  the  later  period  as  the  Age  of  Metals. 

The  division  lines  between  these  ages  are  not  sharply  drawn. 
In  most  countries  the  epochs  run  into  and  overlap  one  another, 
just  as  in  modern  times  the  Age  of  Steam  runs  into  and  overlaps 
the  Age  of  Electricity. 

5.  The  Paleolithic  or  Old  Stone  Age.  —  In  the  Old  Stone  Age 
man's  implements  were  usually  made  of  stone,  and  particularly  of 
easily  chipped  flints,  though  sometimes  bones,  horns,  tusks,  and 
other  material  were  used  in  their  manufacture.  These  rude  tools 
and  weapons  of  Paleolithic  man,  found  in  gravel  beds  and  in  caves, 
are  the  very  oldest  things  in  existence  shaped  by  human  hands. 

The  man  of  the 
Old  Stone  Age  saw 
the  retreating  gla- 
ciers of  the  last  great 
ice  age,  of  which 
geology  tells  us. 
Among  the  animals 
which  lived  with  him 
on  the  continent  of 
Europe  —  we  know 
most  of  PaleoHthic 
man  there  —  were 
the  mammoth,  the  cave  bear,  the  elk,  the  rhinoceros,  the  wild 
horse,  and  the  reindeer;  species  which  are  no  longer  found  in 
the  regions  where  primitive  man  hunted  them.  As  the  climate 
gradually  grew  warmer  they  either  became  extinct  or  retreated 
up  the  mountains  or  migrated  towards  the  north. 

What  we  know  of  Paleolithic  man  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows :  he  was  a  hunter  and  fisher ;  his  habitation  was  a  cave 
or  a  rock  shelter;    his  implements  were  in   the  main  roughly 

2  These  objects  come  from  France.  The  central  flint  in  the  upper  row  is  espe- 
cially interesting  as  being  "  undoubtedly  the  ancestor  or  forerunner  of  all  arrow  or 
spear  heads"  (Wilson).  Of  equal  interest  is  the  scraper  (the  upper  right-hand  flint) 
as  "  marking  the  first  step  taken  by  man  in  the  art  of  tanning,  and  as  being  the  oldest 
specialized  tool  or  utensil  known  to  him"  {Ibid.). 


Fig.  r.  —  The  Earliest  Implements  of 
Paleolithic  Type.^     (After  Wilson) 


PREHISTORIC   TIMES 


Fig. 


2.  —  Engraving  of  a  Reindeer  ^ 
(Old  Stone  Age) 


shaped  flints ;  he  had  no  domestic  animals  save  possibly  the  dog 
and  the  reindeer ;  he  was  practically  ignorant  of  the  art  of  making 
pottery ;  he  had  no  beUef  in  a  future  Ufe,  at  least  we  have  no 
evidence  that  he  buried  his  dead  after  the  manner  of  those  folk 

who  have  come  to  hold  such 
a  belief  (sec.  6). 

The  length  of  the  Old 
Stone  Age  no  one  knows ; 
we  do  not  attempt  to  reckon 
its  duration  by  centuries  or 
millenniums  even,  but  only 
by  geologic  epochs.  But  we  do  know  —  and  this  is  something 
of  vastly  greater  moment  than  a  knowledge  of  the  duration  of 
the  age  —  that  the  long  slow  epochs  did  not  pass  away  without 
some  progress  having  been  made  by  primeval  man,  which  assures 
us  that  though  so  lowly  a  creature  he  was  a  creature  endowed  with 
capacity  for  growth  and  improvement, 

Before  the  end  of  the  age  man  had  learned  the  use  of  fire,  as 
we  know  from  the  traces  of  fire  found  in  the  caves  which  were 
his  abode,  and  had  invented  the  bow  and  arrow,  as  is  evidenced 
by  arrowheads  of  flint  and  of  bone  which  have  been  discovered. 
This  important  invention  gave  man  what  was  to  be  one  of  his 
chief  weapons  in  the 
chase  and  in  war  down 
to  and  even  after  the  in- 
vention of  firearms  late 
in  the  historic  age. 

But  most  prophetic  of 
the  great  future  before 
this  savage  or  semi- 
savage  cave  man  is  the 
sense  of  form  and  beauty  which  he  possessed  ;  for,  strange  as 
it  may  seem,  the  man  of  this  epoch  was  in  his  way  an  artist. 

3  These  interesting  art  objects  are  from  France.  They  represent  the  earliest 
artistic  efforts  of  man  of  which  we  have  knowledge.  In  comparison  with  them,  the 
pictures  on  the  oldest  Egyptian  monuments  are  modern. 


Fig.  3.  —  Engraving  of  a  Mammoth  on 

THE  Fragment  of  a  Tusk  ^ 

(Old  Stone  Age) 


THE   NEOLITHIC   OR   NEW   STONE   AGE 


5 


Hundreds  of  specimens  of  drawings  or  carvings,  chiefly  of  animals, 
on  bone  or  on  ivory  have  been  discovered.  The  accompanying 
cuts  (Figs.  2  and  3)  are  reproductions  of  celebrated  engravings 
made  by  Paleolithic  artists. 

6.  The  Neolithic  or  New  Stone  Age.  —  The  Old  Stone  Age  was 
followed  by  the  New.  Chipped  or  hammered  stone  implements 
still  continued  to  be  used,  but  what  characterizes  this  period  was 
the  use  of  ground  or  polished  implements.  The  North  American 
Indians  were  in  this  stage  of  culture  at  the  time  of  the  discovery 
of  the  New  World.  The  old  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  seem  to 
have  been  just  emerging  from  it  when 
they  first  appear  in  the  dawn  of  the 
historic  day. 

Neolithic  man  in  Europe  was  in  many 
respects  much  advanced  over  Paleolithic 
man.  He  had  learned  to  cultivate  the 
soil ;  he  had  learned  to  make  pottery, 
to  spin,  and  to  weave ;  he  had  domesti- 
cated various  wild  animals ;  he  built 
houses  and  constructed  great  earthen 
forts ;  and  he  buried  his  dead  in  such 
a  manner  —  with  "  accompanying  gifts  " 
(Fig.  4)  —  as  to  show  that  he  had  come 
to  believe  in  a  future  life. 

7.  The  Age  of  Metals.  —  Finally  the  long  ages  of  stone  passed 
into  the  Age  of  Metals.  This  age  falls  into  three  subdivisions, 
—  the  Age  of  Copper,  the  Age  of  Bronze,  and  the  Age  of  Iron. 
Some  peoples,  like  the  African  negroes,  passed  directly  from  the 
use  of  stone  to  the  use  of  iron ;  but  in  most  of  the  countries  of 
the  Orient  and  of  Europe  the  three  metals  came  into  use  one 
after  the  other  and  in  the  order  named. 

Speaking  broadly,  we  may  saji  that  the  Age  of  Metals  embraces 
the  five  millenniums  preceding  the  opening  of  our  era.  This 
means  that  for  some  peoples,  as  for  instance  the  Egyptians  and 
the  Babylonians,  these  epochs  or  stages  of  culture  fall  within  their 
historic  period,  while  for  others,  as  for  instance  the  Greeks  and 


Fig.  4.  —  A  Prehistoric 

Egyptian  Tomb 

(From  Sergi) 


6  PREHISTORIC  TIMES 

the  Romans,  they  begin  in  their  prehistoric  and  overlap  their 
historic  age.* 

The  history  of  metals  has  been  declared  to  be  the  history  of 
civilization.  Indeed,  it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  overesti- 
mate their  importance  to  man.  Man  could  do  very  httle  with 
stone  implements  compared  wdth  what  he  could  do  with  metal 
implements.  It  was  a  great  labor  for  primitive  man,  even  with 
the  aid  of  fire,  to  fell  a  tree  with  a  stone  axe  and  to  hollow  out 
the  trunk  for  a  boat.  He  w^as  hampered  in  all  his  tasks  by  the 
rudeness  of  his  tools.  It  was  only  as  the  bearer  of  metal  imple- 
ments and  weapons  that  he  began  really  to  subdue  the  earth  and  to 
get  dominion  over  nature.  All  the  higher  cultures  of  the  ancient 
world  with  which  history  begins  were  based  on  the  knowledge  and 
use  of  metals. 

8.  The  Origin  of  the  Use  of  Fire.  —  In  this  and  following  para- 
graphs we  shall  dwell  briefly  upon  some  of  the  special  discoveries 
and  achievements,  several  of  which  have  already  been  mentioned, 
marking  important  steps  in  man's  progress  during  the  prehistoric 
ages.     Prominent  among  these  w^as  the  discovery  of  fire. 

The  origin  of  the  use  of  fire  is  hidden  in  the  obscurity  of  pre- 
historic times.  That  fire  was  known  to  Paleohthic  man  we  learn, 
as  aheady  noted,  from  the  traces  of  it  discovered  in  the  caves  and 
rock  shelters  which  were  his  abode.  No  people  has  ever  been 
found  so  low  in  the  scale  of  culture  as  to  be  without  it. 

As  to  the  w^ay  in  which  early  man  came  into  possession  of  fire 
we  have  no  knowledge.  Possibly  he  kindled  his  first  fire  from  a 
glowing  lava  stream  or  from  some  burning  tree  trunk  set  aflame 

4  The  use  of  copper  seems  to  have  begun  among  the  peoples  of  the  Orient  before 
5000  B.C.  It  is  a  soft  metal,  and  tools  and  weapons  made  of  it  were  not  so  greatly 
superior  to  the  stone  ones  then  in  use  as  to  put  them  out  of  service.  But  either  by 
accident  or  through  experiment  it  was  discovered  that  by  mixing  about  nine  parts  of 
copper  with  one  part  of  tin  a  new  metal,  called  bronze,  much  harder  than  either  tin 
or  copper,  could  be  made.  So  greatly  superior  were  bronze  to  stone  implements  that 
their  introduction  caused  the  use  of  stone  for  tools  and  weapons  to  be  discontinued, 
and  consequently  the  Age  of  Bronze  constitutes  a  well-defined  and  important  epoch 
in  the  history  of  culture.  Bronze  seems  to  have  been  used  by  the  first  kmgs  of 
Egypt,  about  4500  B.C.  From  the  East  the  metal  was  carried  into  Europe.  Iron 
was  already  in  use  among  the  Oriental  peoples  about  1500  B.C.,  and  was  gradually 
introduced  among  the  European  tribes. 


THE   DOMESTICATION    OF  ANIMALS  7 

by  the  lightning.  However  this  may  be,  he  had  in  the  earliest 
times  learned  to  produce  the  vital  spark  by  means  of  friction. 
The  fire  borer,  according  to  Tylor,  is  among  the  oldest  of  human 
inventions. 

Only  gradually  did  primeval  man  learn  the  various  properties 
of  fire  and  discover  the  different  uses  to  which  it  might  be  put, 
just  as  historic  man  has  learned  only  gradually  the  possible  uses 
of  electricity.  By  some  happy  accident  or  discovery  he  learned 
that  it  would  harden  clay,  and  he  became  a  potter ;  that  it  would 
smelt  ores,  and  he  became  a  worker  in  metals ;  and  that  it  would 
aid  him  in  a  hundred  other  ways.  "  Fire,"  says  Joly,  "  presided 
at  the  birth  of  nearly  every  art,  or  quickened  its  progress."     The 


Fig.  5.  —  Primitive  Methods  of  making  Fire 
(After  Ranke-  Tylor) 

place  it  holds  in  the  development  of  the  family,  of  religion,  and 
of  the  industrial  arts  is  revealed  by  these  three  significant  words 
— "  the  hearth,  the  altar,  the  forge."  No  other  agent  has  contrib- 
uted more  to  the  progress  of  civilization.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  how  without  fire  primitive  man  could  ever  have  emerged 
from  the  Age  of  Stone. 

9.  The  Domestication  of  Animals.  —  "  When  we  visit  a  farm  at 
the  present  day  and  observe  the  friendly  nature  of  the  Hfe  which 
goes  on  there,  —  the  horse  proudly  and  obediently  bending  his 
neck  to  his  yoke  ;  the  cow  offering  her  streaming  udder  to  the  milk- 
maid ;  the  woolly  flock  going  forth  to  the  field,  accompanied  by  their 
trusty  protector,  the  dog,  who  comes  fawning  to  his  master,  —  this 
familiar  intercourse  between  man  and  beast  seems  so  natural  that 
it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  things  may  once  have  been  different. 


8  PREHISTORIC   TIMES 

And  yet  in  the  picture  we  see  only  the  final  result  of  thousands 
and  thousands  of  years  of  the  work  of  civilization,  the  enormous 
importance  of  which  simply  escapes  our  notice  because  it  is  by 
everyday  wonders  that  our  amazement  is  least  excited."^ 

The  most  of  this  work  of  inducing  the  animals  of  the  fields 
and  the  woods  to  become  as  it  were  members  or  dependents  of 
the  human  family,  to  enter  into  a  league  of  friendship  with  man 
and  to  become  his  helpers,  was  done  by  prehistoric  man.  When 
man  appears  in  history,  he  appears  surrounded  by  almost  all  the 
domestic  animals  known  to  us  to-day.  The  horse  was  already  his 
wiUing  servant ;  the  dog  was  his  faithful  companion ;  the  sheep, 
the  cow,  and  the  goat  shared  his  shelter  with  him. 

The  domestication  of  animals  had  such  a  profound  effect  upon 
human  life  and  occupation  that  it  marks  the  opening  of  a  new 
epoch  in  history.  The  hunter  became  a  shepherd,  and  the  hunting 
stage  in  culture  gave  place  to  the  pastoral.^ 

10.  The  Domestication  of  Plants.  —  Long  before  the  dawn  of 
history  those  peoples  of  the  Old  World  who  were  to  play  great 
parts  in  early  historic  times  had  advanced  from  the  pastoral  to 
the  agricultural  stage  of  culture.  Just  as  the  step  from  the  hunt- 
ing to  the  pastoral  stage  had  been  taken  with  the  aid  of  a  few  of 
the  most  social  species  of  animals,  so  had  this  second  upward  step 
from  the  pastoral  to  the  agricultural  stage  been  taken  by  means 
of  the  domestication  of  a  few  of  the  innumerable  species  of  the 
seed  grasses  and  plants  growing  wild  in  field  and  wood. 

Wheat  and  barley,  two  of  the  most  important  of  the  cereals, 
were  probably  first  domesticated  on  the  plains  of  Babylonia  and 
from  there  carried  over  Asia  and  Europe.  These  grains,  together 
with  oats  and  rice,  have  been,  in  the  words  of  Tylor,  "the  main- 
stay of  human  life  and  the  great  moving  power  of  civilization." 
They  constituted  the  basis  of  the  earhest  great  states  and  civili- 
zations of  Asia  and  Europe. 

5  SCHRADER,  Prehistoric  Antiquities  of  the  Aryan  Peoples  (London,  1890),  p.  259. 

6  It  is  of  interest  to  know  that  most  of  the  wild  stocks  whence  have  come  our 
domestic  animals  are  of  Old- World  origin.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  one  reason 
why  the  tribes  of  the  New  World  at  the  time  of  its  discovery  were  so  far  behind  the 
peoples  of  the  Old  was  that  there  were  fewer  tamable  animals  here. 


THE  FORMATION  OF  LANGUAGE        9 

The  domestication  of  plants  and  the  art  of  tilHng  the  soil 
effected  a  great  revolution  in  prehistoric  society.  The  wandering 
Ufe  of  the  hunter  and  the  herder  now  gave  way  to  a  settled  mode 
of  existence.  Cities  were  built,  and  within  them  began  to  be 
amassed  those  treasures,  material  and  immaterial,  which  constitute 
the  precious  heirloom  of  humanity.  This  attachment  to  the  soil 
of  the  hitherto  roving  clans  and  tribes  meant  also  the  beginning 
of  political  life.  The  cities  were  united  into  states  and  great 
kingdoms  were  formed,  and  the  political  history  of  man  began,  as 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates. 

Early  man  seems  to  have  reahzed  how  much  he  owed  to  the 
art  of  husbandry,  for  in  the  mythologies  of  many  peoples  some 
god  or  goddess  is  represented  as  having  taught  men  how  to  till  the 
soil  and  to  plant  the  seed.  It  seemed  to  man  that  for  so  great  a 
boon  he  must  be  beholden  to  the  beneficence  of  the  gods.'^ 

II.  The  Formation  of  Language.  —  Another  great  task  and 
achievement  of  primitive  man  was  the  making  of  language.  The 
earhest  speech  used  by  historic  man,  as  Tylor  observes,  "  teaches 
the  interesting  lesson  that  the  main  work  of  language- making  was 
done  in  the  ages  before  history." 

The  vastness  of  this  work  is  indicated  by  the  rich  and  intricate 
nature  of  the  languages  with  which  history  begins,  for  language- 
making,  particularly  in  its  earhest  stages,  is  a  very  slow  process. 
Periods  of  time  hke  geologic  epochs  must  have  been  required 
for  the  formation  out  of  the  scanty  speech  of  the  first  men,  by  the 
slow  process  of  word-making,  of  the  rich  and  copious  languages 
already  upon  the  lips  of  the  great  peoples  of  antiquity,  the  Hamitic 

7  So  thorough  was  prehistoric  man's  search  for  whatever  in  the  plant  world  could 
be  cultivated  for  food  that  historic  man  has  not  been  able  during  the  last  2000  years 
from  the  tens  of  thousands  of  wild  plants  to  discover  any  species  comparable  in  value 
to  any  one  of  the  staple  food-plants  selected  and  domesticated  by  primeval  man 
(De  Candolle,  Origin  of  Cultivated  Plants,  p.  45 1).  It  is  interesting  further  to  note 
that  while  early  man  exploited  the  organic  kingdoms,  that  is  to  say  the  animal  and 
vegetable  realms,  he  made  few  and  slight  requisitions  upon  the  forces  of  the  inorganic 
world.  It  was  reserved  for  the  men  of  the  later  historic  age  to  domesticate,  so  to 
speak,  the  powerful  agents  steam  and  electricity  and  by  their  utilization  to  effect 
revolutions  in  modern  society  like  those  effected  in  prehistoric  times  by  the  domes- 
tication of  animals  and  plants. 


lO  PREHISTORIC   TIMES 

Egyptians,  the  Semitic  Babylonians,  the  Aryans  of  India  and 
Persia,  and  their  kinsmen,  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  when  they 
first  appear  in  the  morning  light  of  history. 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  inestimable  value  to  man  of  the 
acquisition  of  language.  Without  it  all  his  other  acquisitions  and 
discoveries  would  have  remained  comparatively  fruitless,  all  his 
efforts  to  lift  himself  to  higher  levels  of  culture  have  been  unavail- 
ing. Without  it,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  he  must  have  remained 
forever  in  an  unprogressive  and  savage  or  semi-savage  state. 

12.  The  Invention  of  Writing. — Still  another  achievement  of 
prehistoric  man,  and  after  the  making  of  language  perhaps  his 
greatest,  certainly  the  most  fruitful,  was  the  invention  of  writing. 

The  first  form  of  writing  used  by  primitive  man  was  picture 
writing,  such  as  was  and  is  still  used  by  some  of  the  Indian  tribes 

Fig.  6.  —  Indian  Picture  Writing.^     {Mi&x  Mallery-Dejiiker) 

of  the  New  World.  In  this  system  of  writing  the  characters  are 
rude  pictures  of  material  objects,  as  for  instance  a  picture  of  an 
eye  <2::5-  to  indicate  the  organ  of  sight ;  or  they  are  symbols  of 
ideas,  as  for  illustration  a  picture  consisting  of  wavy  lines  beneath 
an  arc  representing  the  sky  [^^  to  indicate  rain.  This  way  of 
representing  ideas,  which  >>>>>>  seems  natural  to  man,  is  known 
as  ideographic  writing,  and  the  signs  are  called  ideograms. 

A  great  step  in  advance  is  taken  when  the  picture  writer  uses 
his  pictures  or  symbols  to  represent  not  actual  objects  or  ideas, 
but  sounds  of  the  human  voice,  that  is,  words.  This  step  was 
taken  in  prehistoric  times  by  different  peoples  independently. 
It  seems  to  have  been  taken  by  means  of  the  rebus,  a  mode  of 
writing  which  children  love  to  employ.  What  makes  rebus  writ- 
ing possible  is  the  existence  in  every  language  of  words  having 

8  Record  of  an  Alaskan  hunt.  It  reads  thus :  I  go,  by  boat  (indicated  by  pad- 
dle) ;  sleep  one  night  (hand  to  side  of  head  denotes  sleep),  on  island  with  two  huts  ;  I 
go  to  another  island  ;  two  sleeps  there  ;  hunt  with  harpoon,  sea  lion  ;  also  with  bow; 
return  by  boat  with  companion  (indicated  by  two  oars),  to  my  lodge. 


THE    INVENTION   OF   WRITING  ii 

the  same  sound  but  different  meanings.  Thus  in  English  the  pro- 
noun /  is  sounded  like  the  word  eye,  and  the  word  ?'eign,  to  rule, 
like  the  word  rain.  Now  the  picture  writer,  wishing  to  express 
the  idea  I  reign,  could  do  so  by  the  use  of  the  two  pictures  or 
ideograms  given  above,  in  this  way,  <2:^  ^^^-  ^^hen  so  used, 
the  ideogram  becomes  a  phonogram,  and  >>>>>>  the  writing  is  pho- 
netic or  sound  writing. 

In  this  manner  the  great  chasm  between  picture  writing  and 
sound  writing  is  bridged,  and  one  of  the  most  difficult  steps  taken 
in  the  development  of  a  practical  system  of  representing  thought. 

In  the  first  stage  of  sound  writing,  each  picture  or  symbol 
stands  for  a  whole  word.  In  such  a  system  as  this  there  must  of 
course  be  as  many  characters  or  signs  as  there  are  words  in  the 
language  represented.  In  working  out  their  system  of  writing  the 
Chinese  stuck  fast  at  this  point  (sec.  112). 

Two  additional  steps  beyond  this  stage  are  required  in  order  to 
perfect  the  system.  The  first  of  these  is  taken  when  the  char- 
acters are  used  to  represent  syllables  instead  of  words.  This 
reduces  at  once  the  number  of  signs  needed  from  many  thou- 
sands to  a  few  hundreds,  since  the  words  of  any  given  language 
are  formed  by  the  combination  of  a  comparatively  small  number 
of  syllables.  With  between  four  .and  five  hundred  symbols  the 
ancient  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  who  used  this  form  of  writing, 
were  able  to  represent  all  the  words  of  their  respective  languages 
(sec.  53).  Characters  or  symbols  used  to  represent  syllables  are 
called  syllabic  phonograms,  and  a  collection  of  such  signs  is  called 
a  syllabary. 

While  a  collection  of  syllabic  signs  is  a  great  improvement  over 
a  collection  of  word  signs,  still  it  is  a  clumsy  instrument  for 
expressing  ideas,  and  the  system  requires  still  further  simplifica- 
tion. This  is  done  and  the  final  step  in  developing  a  convenient 
system  of  writing  is  taken  when  the  symbols  are  used  to  represent 
not  syllables  but  elementary  sounds  of  the  human  voice.  Then 
the  symbols  become  true  letters,  a  complete  collection  of  which 
is  called  an  alphabet,  and  the  mode  of  writing  alphabetic. 

When  and  where  the  final  step  was  taken  we  do  not  know. 


12  PREHISTORIC  TIMES 

But  as  early  as  the  ninth  century  B.C.  we  find  several  Semitic 
peoples  in  possession  of  an  alphabet.^  Through  the  agency  of 
Phoenician  and  other  traders  this  so-called  Semitic  alphabet  was 
spread  east  and  west,  and  became  the  parent  of  most  of  the 
existing  alphabets  of  the  world  (sec.  93). 

With  the  invention  of  phonetic  writing  and  the  practice  of 
keeping  records,  with  names  of  actors  and  dates  of  events,  the 
truly  historic  age  for  man  begins. 

13.  The  Great  Bequest.  —  We  of  this  twentieth  century  esteem 
ourselves  fortunate  in  being  the  heirs  of  a  noble  heritage,  —  the 
inheritors  of  the  precious  accumulations  of  all  the  past  centuries 
of  history.  We  are  not  used  to  thinking  of  the  men  of  the  first 
generation  of  historic  times  as  also  the  heirs  of  a  great  legacy. 
But  even  the  scanty  review  we  have  made  of  what  was  discov- 
ered, invented,  and  thought  out  by  man  during  the  unmeasured 
epochs  before  history  began  cannot  fail  to  have  impressed  us 
with  the  fact  that  a  vast  estate  was  transmitted  by  prehistoric 
to  historic  man. 

If  our  hasty  glance  at  those  far-away  times  has  done  nothing 
more  than  this,  then  we  shall  never  again  regard  history  quite  as 
may  have  been  our  wont.  We  shall  see  everything  in  a  new  light; 
We  shall  see  the  story  of  man  to  be  more  wonderful  than  we  once 
thought,  the  path  which  he  has  followed  to  be  longer  and  more 
toilsome  than  we  ever  imagined. 

But  our  interest  in  the  traveler  will  have  been  deepened 
through  our  knowing  more  of  his  origin,  of  his  early  hard  and 
narrow  hfe,  and  of  his  first  painful  steps  in  the  path  of  civilization. 
We  shall  follow  with  deeper  interest  and  sympathy  this  wonderful 
being,  child  of  earth  and  child  of  heaven,  this  heir  of  all  the  ages, 
as  he  journeys  on  and  upward  with  his  face  toward  the  light. 

9  Our  earliest  inscriptions  in  the  North  Semitic  alphabet  date  from  the  ninth  cen- 
tury B.C.;  but  they  show  unmistakably  that  this  script  had  then  been  in  use  for  a 
considerable  time.  We  probably  possess  South  Arabian  inscriptions  written  already 
in  the  fourteenth  century  B.C.  While  some  scholars  regard  the  Southern  alphabet 
as  a  modification  of  the  Northern,  others  consider  both  as  independent  adaptations 
of  an  earlier  alphabetic  script  and  are  inclined  to  look  to  some  of  the  yEgeo-Cretan 
systems  of  writing  for  a  clew  to  the  origin  of  the  alphabet. 


REFERENCES 


13 


References.  —  Keary,io  The  Dawn  of  History.  Starr,  Some  First 
Steps  in  Human  Progress.  Tylor,  Anthropology,  chaps,  iv  and  vi,  "Lan- 
guage" and  "Writing";  and  Primitive  Culture,  2  vols.  Lubbock,  Pi-e- 
historic  Times.  Mason,  Woman's  Share  in  Prijnitive  Culture.  De  Luce, 
Work  and  Workers  Long  Ago:  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  History 
(announced  for  the  fall  of  1904).  A  special  aim  of  this  work  is  to  illus- 
trate and  unfold  in  a  way  which  will  appeal  to  young  readers  the  several 
subjects  touched  upon  in  this  chapter.  Joly,  Alan  before  Metals.  Daw- 
kins,  Early  3Ia?i  in  Britain.  Hoernes,  Primitive  Man.  Shaler, 
Domesticated  Animals.  Hoffmann,  The  Beginiiings  of  Writing.  Clodd, 
The  Story  of  the  Alphabet.  Taylor,  The  Alphabet,  2  vols.  Parts  of  this 
work  are  antiquated ;  the  theory  of  the  Egyptian  origin  of  the  alphabet  is 
now  discredited. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  The  relation  of  domesticated  animals 
to  man's  progress  in  civilization.  See  especially  Shaler.  2.  The  Age  of 
Bronze.  3.  Pottery  as  an  element  and  index  of  civilization.  4.  The  origin 
of  writing.  See  particularly  Hoffma?in,  Clodd,  and  Mallery  —  the  last  in 
"  Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1888-1889"  (Smith- 
sonian Reports). 

10  For  full  names  of  authors  and  for  further  information  concerning  works  cited, 
see  list  at  end  of  book. 


CHAPTER   II 

RACES  AND  GROUPS  OF  PEOPLES  AT  THE  DAWN  OF 
HISTORY 

14.  Subdivisions  of  the  Historic  Age. — We  begin  now  our 
study  of  the  historic  age,  —  a  record  of  about  seven  thousand 
years.  The  story  of  these  millenniums  is  usually  divided  into 
three  parts,  —  Ancient,  Mediaeval,  and  Modern  History.  Ancient 
History  begins,  as  already  indicated,  with  the  earliest  nations  of 
which  we  can  gain  any  certain  knowledge  through  written  records, 
and  extends  to  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  West,  a.d.  476. 
Mediaeval  History  embraces  the  period,  about  one  thousand  years 
in  length,  lying  between  the  fall  of  Rome  and  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  by  Columbus,  a.d.  1492.  Modern  History  commences 
with  the  close  of  the  mediaeval  period  and  extends  to  the  present 
time.-^ 

It  is  Ancient  History  alone  with  which  we  shall  be  concerned  in 
the  present  volume. 

15.  The  Races  of  Mankind  in  the  Historic  Period. — Distinc- 
tions in  bodily  characteristics,  such  as  form,  color,  and  features, 
divide  the  human  species  into  three  chief  types  or  races,  known 
as  the  Black  or  Ethiopian  Race,  the  Yellow  or  Mongolian  Race, 
and  the  White  or  Caucasian  Race.^  But  we  must  not  suppose 
each  of  these  three  types  to  be  sharply  marked  off  from  the 
others ;  they  shade  into  one  another  by  insensible  gradations. 

1  It  is  thought  preferable  by  some  scholars  to  let  the  beginning  of  the  great 
Teutonic  migration  (a.d.  376)  or  the  restoration  of  the  Empire  by  Charlemagne 
(a.d.  800)  mark  the  end  of  the  period  of  ancient  history.  Some  also  prefer  to  date 
the  beginning  of  the  modern  period  from  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks 
(a.d.  1453) ;  while  still  others  speak  of  it  in  a  general  way  as  commencing  about  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  at  which  time  there  were  many  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries, and  a  great  stir  in  the  intellectual  world. 

2  Some  ethnologists  reckon  a  greater  number  of  types  or  races.  The  classification 
given  is  simply  a  convenient  and  practical  one  (see  Table,  p.  19). 

M 


THE   YELLOW   OR   MONGOLIAN    RACE 


15 


We  assume  the  original  unity  of  the  human  race.  It  is  probable 
that  the  physical  and  mental  differences  of  existing  races  arose 
through  their  progenitors  having  been  subjected  to  different  cli- 
matic influences  and  to  different  conditions  of  life  through  long 
periods  of  prehistoric  time. 

There  has  been  no  perceptible  change  in  the  great  types  during 
the  historic  age.  The  paintings  upon  the  oldest  Egyptian  monu- 
ments show  us  that  at  the  dawn  of 
history  the  principal  races  were  as  dis- 
tinctly marked  as  now,  each  bearing  its 
racial  badge  of  color  and  physiognomy. 

16.  The  Black  Race.  —  Africa  south 
of  the  Sahara  is  the  home  of  the  peo- 
ples of  the  Black  Race,  but  we  find 
them  on  all  the  other  continents  and 
on  many  of  the  islands  of  the  seas, 
whither  they  have  migrated  or  been 
carried  as  slaves  by  the  stronger  races  ; 
for  since  time  immemorial  they  have 
been  "  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water  "  for  their  more  favored  brethren. 

17.  The  Yellow  or  Mongolian  Race.  —  Eastern  and  Northern 
Asia  is  the  central  seat  of  the  Mongohan  Race.  Many  of  the 
Mongolian  tribes  are  pastoral  nomads,  who  roam  over  the  vast 
Asian  plains  north  of  the  great  ranges  of  the  Himalayas;  their 
leading  part  in  history  has  been  to  harass  peoples  of  settled  habits. 

But  the  most  important  peoples  of  this  type  are  the  Japanese 
and  the  Chinese.  The  latter  constitute  probably  a  fifth  or  more 
of  the  entire  population  of  the  earth.  Already  in  times  very 
remote  this  people  had  developed  a  civilization  quite  advanced 
on  various  lines,  but  having  reached  a  certain  stage  in  culture 
they  did  not  continue  to  make  so  marked  a  progress.  Not  until 
recent  times  did  either  the  Chinese  or  the  Japanese  become  a 
factor  of  significance  in  world  history. 

18.  The  White  Race  and  its  Three  Groups. — The  so-called 
White  Race  embraces  the  historic  nations.     The  chief  peoples  of 


Fig.  7.  —  Negro  Captives 

(From  the  monuments  of 

Thebes) 

Ilhistrating  the  permanence  of 
race  characteristics 


l6  RACES   AND   GROUPS   OF   PEOPLES 

this  division  of  mankind  fall  into  three  groups,  —  the  Hamitic,  the 
Semitic,  and  the  Aryan  ^  or  Indo-European.  The  members  form- 
ing any  one  of  these  groups  must  not  be  looked  upon  as  kindred 
in  blood ;  the  only  certain  bond  uniting  the  peoples  of  each  group 
is  the  bond  of  language.* 

The  ancient  Egyptians  were  the  chief  people  of  the  Hamitic 
branch.  In  the  gray  dawn  of  history  we  discover  them  already 
settled  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  there  erecting  great  monu- 
ments so  faultless  in  construction  as  to  render  it  certain  that  those 
who  planned  them  had  had  long  previous  training  in  the  art  of 
building. 

The  Semitic  family  includes  among  its  chief  peoples  the  an- 
cient Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  the  Hebrews,  the  Phoenicians, 
the  Aramaeans,  the  Arabians,  and  the  Ethiopians.  Most  scholars 
regard  Arabia  as  the  original  home  of  this  family,  and  this  penin- 
sula certainly  seems  to  have  been  the  great  distributing  center.^ 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  three  great  monotheistic  religions 
—  the  Hebrew,  the  Christian,  and  the  Mohammedan  —  arose 
among  peoples  belonging  to  the  Semitic  family. 

The  Aryan-speaking  peoples  form  the  most  widely  dispersed 
group  of  the  White  Race.     They  include  the  ancient  Greeks  and 

8  Ethnologists  have  ceased  to  use  this  name,  as  well  as  its  equivalents,  Indo- 
European  and  Indo-Germanic,  as  an  ethnic  term;  but  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
should  be  given  up  by  the  historian.  It  should  be  carefully  noted,  however,  that 
where  the  term  Aryan  is  applied  to  a  people  it  simply  means  that  the  people  thus 
designated  use  an  Aryan  speech,  and  that  it  does  not  mean  that  they  are  related 
by  blood  to  any  other  Aryan-speaking  people.  Physical  or  racial  relationships  can- 
not be  determined  by  the  test  of  language.  Think  of  the  millions  of  English-speaking 
African  negroes  in  the  United  States !  For  a  masterly  discussion  of  the  question 
of  the  ethnic  types  or  races  making  up  the  population  of  Europe,  see  Ripley's  T/ie 
Races  of  Europe  (New  York,  1899). 

4  In  the  case  of  the  Semites  and  the  Hamites,  it  is  probable  that  the  most  of  the 
peoples  forming  each  group  are  in  the  main  actually  of  the  same  ethnic  stock ;  in 
the  case  of  the  Aryans,  however,  we  certainly  have  to  do  with  peoples  belonging  to 
several  distinct  ethnic  subvarieties  or  types. 

5  It  is  held  by  some,  however,  that  the  Semites  at  a  very  early  time  immigrated 
to  Arabia  from  Africa,  where  they  had  lived  in  close  relations  to  the  Hamites.  In 
successive  waves  they  seem  to  have  settled  in  the  lands  adjoining  the  Syro-Arabian 
desert,  first  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  then  apparently  the  Canaanitic  and 
subsequently  the  Hebrew  peoples,  the  Arabians  and  the  Chaldeans,  while  Abyssinia 
clearly  received  its  Semitic  population  from  southwestern  Arabia. 


THE  ARYAN   EXPANSION  17 

Romans,  all  the  peoples  of  modern  Europe  (save  the  Basques, 
the  Finns  and  the  Lapps,  the  Magyars  or  Hungarians,  and  the 
Ottoman  Turks),  together  with  the  Persians  and  the  Hindus  and 
some  other  Asian  peoples. 

19.  The  Aryan  Expansion.  —  Long  before  the  dawn  of  history 
in  Europe  and  while  they  were  yet  in  the  Neohthic  stage  of  cul- 
ture^ (sec.  6),  the  clans  and  tribes  of  the  hitherto  undivided 
Aryan  family  began  to  break  up  and  to  scatter.' 

Some  of  these  tribes  in  the  course  of  their  wanderings  found 
their  way  into  the  great  river  plains  of  India  and  out  upon  the 
table-lands  of  Iran.  They  subjugated  the  aborigines  of  these 
lands  and  communicated  to  them  their  language.  These  Aryan 
invaders  and  the  natives,  thus  Aryanized  in  speech  and  prob- 
ably somewhat  changed  in  blood,  became  the  progenitors  of  the 
Iranians  and  the  Hindus  of  history.^ 

Other  clans  and  tribes  pushed  into  the  peninsulas  of  Greece 
and  Italy,  and,  minghng  with  the  peoples  already  settled  there, 
founded  the  Greek  and  Italian  city-states,  and  from  the  germs  of 
culture  which  they  carried  with  them,  or  which  they  found  among 
the  native  populations  or  afterwards  received  from  the  Oriental 
lands,  developed  what  is  known  as  the  Classical  Civilization. 

Yet  other  tribes  of  the  family,  either  through  peaceful  expan- 
sion, through  social  relations,  or  through  conquest,  had,  long 
before  our  era,  made  Aryan  in  speech  almost  all  the  remaining 
regions  of  Europe.^ 

6  Our  knowledge  of  this  prehistoric  culture  of  the  primitive  Aryan  community  is 
gained  largely  through  a  comparative  study  of  the  words  of  the  different  Aryan 
languages.  Thus,  take  the  word  father.  This  word  occurs  with  but  little  change 
of  form  in  several  of  the  Aryan  tongues  (Sanscrit, //M ;  Persian, /^a^ar;  Greek, 
irari^p;  \jiX\w.^  pater  ;  German,  Vater). 

7  Some  scholars  seek  the  early  home  of  the  primitive  Aryan  folk  in  Asia,  others 
look  for  it  in  Europe,  while  still  others  declare  the  search  to  be  wholly  futile. 

8  It  is  very  important  to  note  that  in  every  case  where  a  non-Aryan  people  gave 
up  their  own  language  and  adopted  that  of  their  Aryan  conquerors,  there  must  have 
taken  place  at  the  same  time  almost  necessarily  a  mingling  of  the  blood  of  the  two 
races.  "  Thus  it  will  be  correct  to  say  that  an  Aryan  strain  permeates  all  or  most 
of  the  groups  now  speaking  Aryan  tongues."  —  Keane,  Ethnology^  p.  396  (Cambridge 
Geographical  Series,  1896). 

9  This  prehistoric  Aryan  expansion  can  best  be  made  plain  by  the  use  of  an  his- 
torical parallel,  —  the  Roman  expansion.     From  their  cradle  city  on  the  Tiber,  the 


l8  RACES  AND    GROUPS    OF   PEOPLES 

Although  the  Aryan  expansion  movement  began  so  long  ago, 
still  we  should  not  think  of  it  as  something  past  and  ended.  The 
outward  movement  in  modern  times  of  the  Aryan- speaking  peoples 
of  Europe,  that  is  to  say,  the  expansion  of  Europe  into  Greater 
Europe  and  the  Europeanizing  of  the  world,  is  merely  the  con- 
tinuation —  and  an  illustration  —  of  the  Aryan  expansion  move- 
ment which  went  on  in  the  obscurity  of  the  prehistoric  ages. 

Thus  we  see  what  leading  parts,  after  what  we  may  call  the 
Semitic  age,  Aryan-speaking  peoples  have  borne  in  the  great 
drama  of  history. 

References.  —  Schrader,  The  Prehistoric  Civilization  of  the  Aryan 
Peoples.  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe.  Ihering,  The  Evolution  of  the 
Aryans.  Keane,  Man,  Past  and  Present.  Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man. 
Sergi,  The  Mediterranean  Race.  Ratzel,  The  History  of  Mankind, 
2  vols.  All  these  works  are  for  the  teacher  and  the  advanced  student. 
Brinton,  Races  and  Peoples  ;  and  Taylor,  The  Origin  of  the  Aryans,  can 
be  used  by  younger  readers. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Causes  of  physical  and  mental  differ- 
ences between  races.     See  Brinton.     2.  The  Ar^-ans.     See  Taylor. 

ancient  Romans  — a  folk  Aryan  in  speech  if  not  in  race  —  went  out  as  conquerors 
and  colonizers  of  the  Mediterranean  world.  Wherever  they  went  they  carried  their 
language  and  their  civilization  with  them.  Many  of  the  peoples  whom  they  sub- 
jected gave  up  their  own  speech,  and  along  with  the  civiUzation  of  their  conquerors 
adopted  also  their  language.  In  this  way  a  large  part  of  the  ancient  world  became 
Romanized  in  speech  and  culture.  When  the  Roman  Empire  broke  up,  there  arose 
a  number  of  Latin-speaking  nations,  —  among  these,  the  French,  Spaniards,  and  Por- 
tuguese. During  the  modern  age  these  Romanized  nations,  through  conquest  and 
colonization,  have  spread  their  Latin  speech  and  civilization  over  a  great  part  of 
the  New  World.  Thus  it  has  come  about  that  to-day  the  language  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  differentiated  into  many  dialects,  is  spoken  by  peoples  spread  over  the  earth 
from  Rumania  in  Eastern  Europe  to  Chile  in  South  America.  All  these  peoples 
we  call  Latins,  not  because  they  are  all  descended  from  the  ancient  Romans,  —  in 
fact  they  belong  to  many  different  ethnic  stocks,  —  but  because  they  all  speak 
languages  derived  from  the  old  Roman  speech.  Just  as  we  use  the  term  Latin  here, 
so  do  we  use  the  term  Aryan  in  connection  with  the  Aryan-speaking  peoples. 


A    WORKING    CLASSIFICATION    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL 
RACES  AND   PEOPLES 

The  larger  divisions  (races)  are  based  on  physical  characteristics,  the  smaller 
on  language. 


Black  Race 
(Ethiopian    or 
Negro) 

Yellow  Race 
(Mongolian  or 
"  Turanian  ") 


White  Race 
(Caucasian) 


Tribes  and  peoples  whose  true  home  is  Central  and 
Southern  Africa. 

(i)  The  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  kindred  peoples  of 
Eastern  Asia;  (2)  the  nomads  (Tartars,  Mongols, 
etc.)  of  Northern  and  Central  Asia  and  of  Eastern 
Russia ;  (3)  the  Turks,  the  Magyars,  or  Hungarians, 
the  Finns  and  Lapps,  and  the  Basques,  in  Europe. 
/  Egyptians, 

\  Libyans  (modern  Berbers). 
Babylonians, 
Assyrians, 
Phoenicians, 
Hebrews, 
Aramaeans, 
Arabians. 

f  Hindus, 

Asiatics ^   Medes, 

1^  Persians. 
Greeks, 


Hamites 


Semites 


Classical  peoples 


Aryans,  or 
Indo-Eu-  ■< 
ropeans 


Celts 


Teutons 


^  Slavs . 


[^  Romans. 

r  Gauls, 
J  Britons, 

I  Scots  (Irish), 

I  Picts. 

r  Germans, 
■\   English, 

1^  Scandinavians, 
f  Russians, 
1  Poles,  etc. 


The  Irish,  the  Welsh,  the  Scotch  Highlanders,  and  the  Bretons  of  Brittany 
(anciently  Armorica),  in  France,  are  the  presant  representatives  of  the  ancient 
Celts. 


19 


Fig.  8.  —  Egyptian  Scene 

Part  I— The  Eastern  Nations 

CHAPTER  HI 

ANCIENT  EGYPT 

(From  about  5000  to  30  B.C.) 

I.  The  Land  and  the  People 

20.  Egypt  and  the  Nile.  — The  Egypt  of  history  comprises  the 
delta  of  the  Nile  and  the  flood  plains  of  its  lower  course.  These 
rich  lands  were  formed  in  past  geologic  ages  from  the  sediment 
brought  down  by  the  river  in  seasons  of  flood.  The  delta  was 
known  to  the  ancients  as  Lower  Egypt,  while  the  valley  proper, 
reaching  from  the  head  of  the  delta  to  the  First  Cataract,^  a 
distance  of  six  hundred  miles,  was  called  Upper  Egypt. 

Through  the  same  means  by  which  Egypt  was  originally  created 
is  the  land  each  year  still  renewed  and  fertilized  ;  ^  hence  the  Greek 

1  About  seven  hundred  miles  from  the  Mediterranean  low  ledges  of  rocks  stretch- 
ing across  the  Nile  form  the  first  obstruction  to  navigation  in  passing  up  the  river. 
The  rapids  found  here  are  termed  the  First  Cataract.  At  this  point  the  divided 
river  forms  the  beautiful  islet  of  Philae,  "  The  Pearl  of  Egypt." 

2  The  rate  of  the  fluviatile  deposit  is  from  three  to  five  inches  in  a  century.  The 
surface  of  the  valley  at  Thebes,  as  shown  by  the  accumulations  about  the  monuments, 
has  been  raised  about  seven  feet  during  the  last  seventeen  hundred  years. 

20 


MED   I 


Rosella  MuiUh 
Cannpus 
Alexandria 


T.E  R  R  A  N  E  A  N  SEA 


V        AjonisalenitV 


CLIMATE  AND   PRODUCTS 


21 


historian  Herodotus,  in  a  happy  phrase,  called  the  country  "  the 
gift  of  the  Nile."  Swollen  by  heavy  tropical  rains  and  the  melting 
snows  of  the  mountains  about  its  sources,  the  Nile  begins  to  rise 
in  its  lower  parts  late  in  June,  and  towards  the  first  of  October, 
when  the  inunda- 
tion has  attained 
its  greatest  height, 
the  country  pre- 
sents the  appear- 
ance of  a  turbid 
sea. 


Fig.  9. 


—  Plowing  and  Sowing 
(From  a  papyrus) 


By  the  end  of  November  the  river  has  returned  to  its  bed, 
leaving  the  fields  covered  with  a  film  of  rich  earth.  At  the  pres- 
ent day  the  plow  is  usually  run  lightly  over  the  soft  surface,  but 
in  the  earliest  times  the  grain  was  often  sown  upon  the  undis- 
turbed deposit,  and  trampled  in  by  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats 
driven  over  the  fields.  In  a  few  weeks  'after  the  sowing,  the 
entire  land,  so  recently  a  flooded  plain,  is  overspread  with  a  sea 
of  verdure,  which  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  desert  sands 
and  barren  hiHs  that  rim  the  valley. 

21.  Climate  and  Products.  —  In  Lower  Egypt,  near  the  sea,  the 
rainfaU  in  the  winter  is  abundant ;  but  the  climate  of  Upper  Egypt 
is  all  but  rainless,  only  a  few  slight  showers,  as  a  rule,  falling 

throughout  the 
year.^  This  dryness 
of  the  Egyptian  air 
is  what  has  pre- 
served through  so 
many  thousand 
years,  in  such  won- 
derful freshness  of 
color  and  with  such  sharpness  of  outline,  the  numerous  paintings 
and  sculptures  of  the  monuments  of  the  country. 


Fig.  10.  —  Reaping  the  Grain 
(From  a  papyrus) 


3  At  irregular  intervals  of  a  few  years,  however,  there  occurs  a  real  cloud-burst, 
and  the  mud-built  villages  of  the  natives  are  literally  half  dissolved  and  washed  into 
the  river. 


22  ANCIENT  EGYPT 

The  southern  line  of  Egypt  only  just  touches  the  tropics ;  still 
the  climate,  influenced  by  the  wide  and  hot  deserts  that  hem  the 
valley,  is  semi-tropical  in  character.  The  fruits  of  the  tropics  and 
the  cereals  of  the  temperate  zone  grow  luxuriantly.  Thus  favored 
in  climate  as  well  as  in  the  matter  of  irrigation,  Egypt  became  in 
early  times  the  granary  of  the  East.  To  it  less  favored  countries, 
when  stricken  by  famine,  —  a  calamity  so  common  in  the  East  in 
regions  dependent  upon  the  rainfall,  —  looked  for  food,  as  did  the 
families  of  Israel  during  drought  and  failure  of  crops  in  Palestine. 

22.  The  Prehistoric  Age  in  Egypt  (from  an  unknown  antiquity 
to  about  5000  B.C.). — Traces  of  man's  existence  in  the  Nile 
valley  during  the  Paleolithic  period  have  been  found  in  several 
places,  while  in  numerous  localities  in  all  parts  of  Egypt  south  of 
the  delta,  implements  belonging  to  the  Neohthic  time  have  been 
discovered.  Our  knowledge  of  the  people  inhabiting  the  country 
in  prehistoric  times  has  thus  been  greatly  increased  in  recent  years. 
They  dressed  in  skins,  lived  in  mud  or  reed  huts,  and  hunted  the 
wild  animals  which  inhabited  the  forests  that  in  those  distant  times 
covered  the  river  plains  and  the  now  desert  plateaus  bordering 
the  valley.*  These  aboriginal  folk  seem  to  have  been  of  Hamitic 
stock,  being  apparently  an  offshoot  of  the  ancient  Libyan  race. 

About  5000  B.C.  there  seems  to  have  come  into  the  valley  a 
new  people  from  the  region  of  the  Red  Sea.  These  immigrants 
are  believed  to  have  come  from  some  East  African  or  South  Ara- 
bian territory  that  had  been  under  the  influence  of  the  culture 
which  had  already  sprung  up  in  the  Babylonian  plains.  They 
may  have  brought  with  them,  as  has  been  supposed,  implements 
of  copper  and  bronze,  some  of  the  cereals,  oxen,  sheep  and  goats, 
a  knowledge  of  the  use  of  bricks  for  building  material,  a  system 
of  writing,  and  other  elements  of  civilization.  It  is  thought  by 
some  scholars  that  the  historic  Egyptians  arose  from  the  union 
of  these  invaders  with  the  earlier  settlers,  while  by  other  Egyptol- 
ogists it  is  maintained  that  there  never  was  any  essential  change 
in  the  Hamitic  character  of  this  people. 

4  The  petrified  remains  of  these  forests,  like  the  fossilized  forests  of  Arizona  in 
our  own  country,  now  lie  strewn  in  places  over  the  desert.  One  of  these  mummified 
forests  is  easily  visited  from  the  modern  city  of  Cairo. 


THE   THIRTY-ONE   DYNASTIES 


23 


II.  Political  History 

23.  The  Thirty-One  Dynasties ;  the  Old,  the  Middle,  and  the 
New  Empire.  —  The  Pharaohs,  or  kings,  that  reigned  in  Egypt 
from  Menes  till  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  Alexander  the 
Great  (332  B.C.)  are  grouped  into  thirty-one  dynasties.  Thirty 
of  these  we  find  in  the  lists  of 
Manetho,  an  Egyptian  priest 
who  lived  in  the  third  century 
B.C.,  and  who  compiled  in  the 
Greek  language  a  chronicle  of 
the  kings  of  the  country  from 
the  manuscripts  kept  in  the 
Egyptian  temples. 

The  first  ten  of  these  dynas- 
ties comprise  what  is  known  to 
Egyptologists  as  the  Old  Em- 
pire ;  the  next  seven  cover  the 
period  of  the  so-called  Middle 
Empire ;  and  the  eighteenth, 
nineteenth,  and  twentieth  what 
is  designated  as  the  New  Em- 
pire. The  remaining  dynasties 
represent  mainly  the  rule  of 
foreigners  or  conquerors.  The 
history  of  these  thirty-one  dy- 
nasties covers  a  period  of  up- 
wards of  four  thousand  years. 
Three  millenniums  of  this  his- 
tory lie  back  of  the  beginning 
of  the  historic  age  in  Greece 
and  Italy. 

24.  Menes,  and  the  First  Three  Dynasties  (about  4500-3700 
B.C.). —  Menes  was  the  founder  of  the  so-called  First  Dynasty. 

5  Found  by  Flinders  Petrie  at  Abydos  in  1903.  "  Clad  in  his  thick  embroidered 
robes,  this  old  king,  wily  yet  feeble  with  the  weight  of  years,  stands  for  the  diplomacy 
and  statecraft  of  the  oldest  civilized  kingdom  that  we  know"  (Petrie). 


Fig.  II.  —  Ivory  Statuette  of  a 

King  of  the  First  Dynasty  ^ 

(From  Petrie's  Abydos,  Part  II) 


24 


ANCIENT    EGYPT 


Tradition   represents  him    as   the  builder   of   the   great  city  of 
Memphis,  near  the  head  of  the  delta,   and   the   constructor  of 
vast  engineering  and  irrigation  works  in  that  region.    What  is 
believed  to  be  his  tomb  has  been  recently  discovered  (in  1897). 
Since  1894  there  have  also  been  found  monuments  of  other 
Pharaohs  of  the  First  Dynasty,  besides  various  interesting  memo- 
rials of  the  rulers  of  the   two  following   dynasties. 
'^  Thus  slo\\ly  is  the  material  for  the  history  of  these 

remote  tmies  being  accumulated.^ 
25.  The  Fourth  Dynasty :  the  Pyramid  Kings 
(about  3700-3550  B.C.).  —  The  kings 
of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  who 
reigned  at  Memphis,  are 
called  the  pyramid  builders. 
Khufu,  the  Cheops  of  the 
Greeks,  was  the  greatest  of 
these  rulers.  He  built  the 
Great  Pyramid,  at  Gizeh, 
—  "the  greatest  mass  of 
masonry  that  has  ever 
been  put  together  by  mor- 
tal man."^ 

A  recent  fortunate  dis- 
covery ^  enables  us  now  to 
look  upon  the  face  of  this 
Cheops  (Fig.  13),  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  renowned 


Fig.  12. 


—  A  Detail  of  the  Great 

Pyramid 
(From  a  photograph) 


6  Recently  the  monuments  of  a 
number  of  kings  who  reigned  in 
Egypt  before  Menes  have  been  dis- 
covered. Some  of  these  kings  are  known  to  have  ruled  over  the  lower  as  well  as  the 
upper  country.  Menes  was  formerly  believed  to  have  been  the  first  king  of  all  Egypt. 
The  story  of  these  earlier  kings,  as  it  may  hereafter  be  learned  from  the  monuments, 
must  be  called  predynastic  history. 

7  This  pyramid  rises  from  a  base  covering  thirteen  acres  to  a  height  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  feet.  According  to  Herodotus,  Cheops  employed  one  hundred 
thousand  men  for  twenty  years  in  its  erection. 

8  Made  by  Flinders  Petrie  at  Abydos.  Read  his  article  entitled  "  The  Ten 
Temples  of  Abydos,"  in  Harper's  Magazine  for  November,  1903. 


THE   FOURTH   DYNASTY 


^h  0    ^5 


personages  of  the  ancient  world.  "  The  first  tmng  that  strikes 
us,"  writes  Professor  Flinders  Petrie,  "is  the  enormous  driving- 
power  of  the  man,  the  ruling  nature  which  it  seems  impossible 
to  resist,  the  determination  which  is  above  all  constraint  and  all 
opposition.  As  far  as 
force  of  will  goes,  the 
strongest  characters 
in  history  would  look 
pliable  in  this  pres- 
ence. .  .  .  There  is 
no  face  quite  parallel 
to  this  in  all  the  por- 
traits that  we  know, 
—  Egyptian,  Greek, 
Roman,  or  modern." 

To  some  king  of 
this  same  family  of 
pyramid  builders  is 
also  ascribed,  by 
some  authorities,  the 
sculpture  of  the 
gigantic  human- 
headed  Sphinx  at  the 
foot  of  the  Great 
Pyramid. 

These  sepulchral 
monuments,  for  the 
pyramids  were  the  tombs  of  the  Pharaohs  who  constructed  them 
(sec.  40),  and  the  great  Sphinx  are  the  most  venerable  memorials 
of  the  early  world  that  have  been  preserved  to  us.  Although 
standing  so  far  back  in  the  gray  dawn  of  the  historic  morning, 
they  mark  not  the  beginning  but  in  some  respects  the  perfection 
of  Egyptian  art.  They  speak  of  long  periods  of  human  life,  of 
ages  of  growth  and  experience,  lying  behind  the  era  they  repre- 
sent. It  is  this  vast  and  mysterious  background  that  impresses  us 
even  more  than  these  giant  forms  cast  up  against  it. 


Fig 


3- 


-Khufu,  Builder  of  the 
Great  Pyramid 
(From  Petrie 's  Abydos,  Part  II) 


26 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


26.  The  Twelfth  Dynasty  (about  2500-2300  b.c).  —  After  the 
Sixth  Dynasty  Egypt  for  several  centuries  is  almost  lost  from  view. 
When  finally  the  valley  emerges  from  the  obscurity  of  this  period, 
the  old  capital  Memphis  has  receded  into  the  background  and  the 
city  of  Thebes  has  taken  its  place  as  the  seat  of  the  royal  power. 
The  period  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  a  line  of  Theban  kings,  is  one 
of  the  brightest  in  Egyptian  history.     It  has  been  called  Egypt's 

Golden  Age.  One  of  the  most 
notable  achievements  of  the  period 
was  the  improvement  made  by  one 
of  the  kings  in  the 'irrigation  of  the 
Fayum  from  Lake  Moeris  (see  map, 
p.  20).  This  was  an  immense  reser- 
voir—  one  of  the  most  important 
irrigation  w^orks  of  the  Pharaohs  — 
for  storing  the  surplus  waters  of  the 
Nile  at  the  time  of  the  annual  inun- 
dation. The  lake  was  formed  by  the 
Nile  flowing  into  a  depression  in 
the  desert  west  of  Memphis. 

27.  The  Hyksos  or  Shepherd 
Kings  (about  1985  —  1575  b.c). — 
Soon  after  the  bright  period  of  the 
Twelfth  Dynasty,  Egypt  again  suf- 
fered a  great  eclipse.  Nomadic 
tribes  from  Asia  pressed  across  the 
eastern  frontier  of  Egypt  and  gradu- 
ally took  possession  of  the  inviting  pasture  lands  of  the  delta,  and 
established  there  the  empire  of  the  Shepherd  Kings. 

These  Asiatic  intruders  were  violent  and  barbarous,  and  destroyed 
or  mutilated  the  monuments  of  the  country.  But  gradually  they 
were  transformed  by  the  civilization  with  which  they  were  in  con- 
tact, and  in  time  they  adopted  the  manners  and  culture  of  the 
Egyptians.  It  is  thought  by  some  scholars  that  it  was  during  the 
supremacy  of  the  Hyksos  that  the  families  of  Israel  found  a  refuge 
in  Lower  Egypt. 


Fig.  14.  —  The   "Sheikh-el- 
Beled."     (Gizeh  Museum) 

Supposed  portrait  statue  of  one  of 
the  overseers  of  the  work  on  the 
Great  Pyramid.  This  is  one  of  the 
masterpieces  of  Egyptian  sculp- 
ture 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   DYNASTY  27 

At  last  these  intruders,  after  they  had  ruled  in  the  valley  more 
than  four  centuries,  were  expelled  by  the  Theban  kings  and  driven 
back  into  Asia. 

Various  elements  of  the  civilization  which  had  long  been  de- 
veloping independently  in  the  Asian  lands  were  introduced  into 
Egypt  by  the  Hyksos.  Among  these  elements  we  may  quite  safely 
include  the  horse  and  the  war  chariot,  since  these  now  appear  for 
the  first  time  upon  the  monuments  of  the  country.  From  this 
period  forward  the  war  chariot  holds  a  place  of  first  importance 
in  the  armaments  of  the  Pharaohs. 

28.  The  Eighteenth  Dynasty  (about  1575-1359  b.c);  Thoth- 

mes  III The  long  struggle  known  as  the  War  of  Independence 

waged  by  the  native  Egyptian  kings  against  the  Hyksos  intruders 
was  brought  to  an  end  by  a  brave  young  Theban  prince  named 
Aahmes.  He  was  the  first  sovereign  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Eighteenth  Dynasty.  The  most  eventful  period  of  Egyptian 
history,  covered  by  what  is  called  the  New  Empire,  now  opens. 
Architecture  and  learning  seem  to  have  recovered  at  a  bound 
from  their  long  depression  under  the  domination  of  the  Shepherd 
Kings. 

To  free  his  empire  from  the  danger  of  another  invasion  from 
Asia,  Aahmes  determined  to  subdue  the  Syrian  and  Mesopota- 
mian  tribes.  This  foreign  policy,  followed  out  by  his  successors, 
shaped  many  of  the  events  of  their  reigns.  It  brought  Egypt 
into  her  first  conflict  with  a  civilized  power,  for  already  in  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  there  had  arisen  a  civilization  rivaling 
that  of  the  Pharaohs,  and  the  great  kings  of  Babylon  had  extended 
their  influence  and  their  authority  westward  to  the  Mediterranean 
(sec.  48),  and  thus  were  injured  by  the  intrusion  of  the  Egyptians 
into  the  Syrian  lands.^ 

Thothmes  III  (about  1 500-1450  B.C.),  one  of  the  greatest 
kings  of  this  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  has  been  called  ''  the  Alexander 
of  Egyptian  history."     During  his  reign  the  frontiers  of  the  empire 

5  "  Her  [Egypt's]  sudden  appearance  in  the  heart  of  Syria  gave  a  new  turn  to 
human  history.  The  isolation  of  the  ancient  world  was  at  an  end ;  the  conflict  of 
the  nations  was  about  to  begin."  —  Maspero,  The  Struggle  of  ike  Nations^  p.  108. 


28 


ANCIENT    EGYPT 


reached  their  greatest  expansion.  His  authority  extended  from 
the  oases  of  the  Libyan  desert  to  beyond  the  Euphrates. 

Thothmes  was  also  a  magnificent  builder.  His  architectural 
works  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  were  almost  numberless.  He  built 
a  great  part  of  the  Temple  of  Karnak,  at  Thebes,  the  remains  of 
which  form  the  most  majestic  ruin  in  the  world.  His  obelisks 
stand  to-day  in  Constantinople,  Rome,  London,  and  New  York. 

It  was  a  Pharaoh  of  this  Eighteenth  Dynasty  that  set  up  the 
celebrated  colossi  at  Thebes,  one  of  which,  under  the  name  of 
the  "Vocal  Memnon,"  ^'^  acquired  a  wide  reputation  among  the 
later  Greeks  and  Romans.^^ 

29.  The  Nineteenth  Dynasty  (about  1359-1253  B.C.).  —  The 
Pharaohs  of  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty  rival  those  of  the  Eighteenth 
in  their  fame  as  conquerors  and  builders.  It  is  their  deeds  and 
works,  in  connection  with  those  of  the  preceding  dynasty,  that 
have  given  Egypt  such  a  name  and  place  in  history. 

The  two  greatest  names  of  this  period  are  those  of  Seti  I  (about 
1356-1347  B.C.)  and  Rameses  II  (about  1347-1280  B.C.).  Seti 
was  a  great  warrior.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  his  campaigns  was  that  against 
the  Hittites  {^Khita  in  the  inscriptions)  and 

10  When  the  rays  of  the  morning  sun  fell  upon  the 
colossus  it  emitted  low  musical  tones,  which  the  Egyp- 
tians believed  to  be  the  greeting  of  the  statue  to  the  rising 
day. 

11  The  name  of  one  of  the  sovereigns  of  this  Eighteenth 
Dynasty  (the  "  heretic  king,"  Amenhotep  IV,  or  Akhen- 
aten,  1403-1385  B.C.)  is  connected  with  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  important  discoveries  ever  made  on 
Oriental  ground.  This  was  the  discovery  in  1887,  at 
Tell  el  Amarna,  on  the  Nile,  of  several  hundred  letters, 
written  in  the  Babylonian  language  and  script  and  com- 
prising the  correspondence,  not  only  between  the  reigning 
Pharaoh  and  the  kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  but 
also  between  the  Egyptian  court  and  the  Egyptian  gov- 
ernors and  vassal  kings  of  various  Syrian  towns.  The 
significance  of  this  discovery  consists  in  the  revelation  it 

makes  of  the  deep  hold  that  the  civilization  of  Babylon  had  upon  the  Syrian  lands  cen- 
turies before  the  Hebrew  invasion  of  Palestine.  This  means  that  the  Hebrew  develop- 
ment took  place  in  an  environment  charged  with  elements  of  Babylonian  culture.  See 
Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature,  pp.  217-241. 


Fig.  15.  —  Tell  el 
Amarna  Letter 
(After  Hilprecht) 


THE   NINETEENTH   DYNASTY 


29 


their  allies.  The  Hittites  were  a  powerful  non-Semitic  people, 
whose  capital  was  Carchemish  on  the  Euphrates,  and  whose 
strength  and  influence  were  now  so  great  as  to  be  a  threat  to 
Egyptian  dominion  in  Syria.^^  Marching  against  these  formidable 
enemies,  Seti  overcame  their  army  with  great  slaughter,  and 
returned  to  Egypt  with  his  chariot, 
after  the  custom  of  those  times, 
adorned  with  the  heads  of  several  of 
their  chiefs. 

But  Seti's  deeds  as  a  warrior  are 
eclipsed  by  his  achievements  as  a 
builder.  He  constructed  the  main 
part  of  what  is  perhaps  the  most  im- 
pressive edifice  ever  raised  by  man 
—  the  world-renowned  Hall  of  Col- 
umns in  the  Temple  of  Karnak,  at 
Thebes. 

Rameses  H,  surnamed  the  Great, 
was  the  Sesostris  of  the  Greeks. 
Ancient  writers  accorded  him  the 
first  place  among  all  the  Egyptian 
sovereigns,  and  told  most  exaggerated  ^'^  *^^  background  town  protected 

^^  by  walls  and  moats 

Stones  of  his  conquests  and  achieve- 
ments.    His  long  reign,  embracing  sixty-seven  years,  was  indeed 
well  occupied  with  military  expeditions  and  the  superintendence 
of  great  architectural  works. 

The  chief  of  his  wars  were  those  against  the  Hittites,  of  whom 
we  have  just  spoken.  Time  and  again  is  Rameses  found  with  his 
host  of  war  chariots  in  the  country  of  this  people,  but  he  evidently 
failed  to  break  their  power ;  for  we  find  him  at  last  concluding 
with  them  a  celebrated  treaty.  In  this  treaty  the  chief  of  the 
Hittites  is  called  "The  Great  King  of  the  Khita,"  and  is  for- 
mally recognized  as  in  every  respect  the  equal  of  the  king  of  Egypt. 


Fig. 


16.  —  Phalanx  of 
THE  Khita 


12  We  know  very  little  about  this  people,  save  that  for  several  centuries  they  divided 
with  Egypt  and  Assyria  the  dominion  of  Western  Asia.  They  had  a  system  of  hiero- 
glyphic writing  and  left  some  inscriptions,  but  these  have  not  yet  been  deciphered. 


30 


ANCIENT    EGYPT 


The  alliance  was  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  a  daughter  of  the 
Hittite  king  to  Rameses. 

All  this  means  that  the  Pharaohs  had  met  their  peers  in  the 
princes  of  the  Hittites,  and  that  they  could  no  longer  hope  to 
become  masters  of  Western  Asia.  Indeed,  the  empire  of  the  Pha- 
raohs had  already  passed  its  culmination,  and  all  Rameses'  efforts 
were  directed  to  upholding  the  fortunes  of  a  declining  state. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  some  scholars  that  this  Rameses  II  was  the 
oppressor  of  the  children  of  Israel,  the  Pharaoh  who  "  made  their 
lives  bitter  with  hard  bondage,  in  mortar  and  in  brick,  and  in  all 


Fig.  17.  —  Rameses  II  charging  the  Foe 

manner  of  service  in  the  field"  (Ex.  i.  14),  and  that  what  is 
known  as  the  Exodus  took  place  in  the  reign  of  his  son,  Meneph- 
tha^^  (about  1275  B.C.). 

30.  The  Twenty-Sixth  Dynasty ;  Psammetichus  I  (about  66^- 
610  B.C.)  and  Necho  II  (610-594  b.c).  — We  pass  without  com- 
ment a  long  period  of  several  centuries,  marked,  indeed,  by 
great  vicissitudes  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Egyptian  monarchs,  yet 

13  In  a  recently  discovered  inscription  Menephtha  mentions  among  other  Palestin- 
ian peoples  Israel  as  having  been  made  desolate  and  left  without  grain.  (This  is  the 
only  reference  to  Israel  on  any  Egyptian  monument.)  The  inference  which  some 
scholars  draw  from  this  is  that  this  people  had  already  settled  down  to  agricultural 
life  in  Syria  at  the  time  of  Menephtha ;  while  others  reconcile  the  inscription  with 
the  Hebrew  records  by  supposing  that  when  the  great  immigration  into  Lower  Egypt 
took  place  a  part  of  the  tribe  or  tribes  of  Israel  remained  behind  in  Syria. 


The  Sixth  Cataract  of  the  Nile 


THE  TWENTY-SIXTH   DYNASTY 


31 


characterized  throughout  by  a  sure  and  rapid  decline  in  the  power 
and  splendor  of  their  empire.  During  the  latter  part  of  this  period 
Egypt  was  tributary  to  Ethiopia  or  to  Assyria ;  but  a  native  prince, 
Psammetichus  by  name,  with  the  aid  of  Greek  mercenaries,  drove 
out  the  foreign  garrisons.  Psammetichus  thus  became  the  founder 
of  the  Twenty-Sixth  Dynasty  (about  663  B.C.). 

The  reign  of  this  monarch  marks  a  new  era  in  Egyptian  history. 
Hitherto  Egypt  had  secluded  herself  from  the  world  behind  bar- 
riers of  race  jealousy  and  pride.  But  Psammetichus  being  him- 
self, it  seems,  of  non- Egyptian  origin,  and  owing  his  throne  chiefly 
to  the  swords  of  Greek  soldiers,  was  led  to  reverse  the  policy  of 
the  past,  and  to  throw  the  valley  open  to   the  commerce  and 


Fig.  18.  —  Brick-Making  in  Ancient  Egypt.     (From  Thebes) 

influences  of  the  world.  His  capital,  Sais,  in  the  delta  region, 
was  filled  with  Greek  citizens,  and  Greek  mercenaries  were  em- 
ployed in  his  armies. 

This  change  of  policy,  occurring  at  just  the  period  when  the 
Greeks  were  coming  prominently  forward  to  play  their  great 
part  in  history,  was  a  most  significant  event.  Egypt  became  the 
instructor  of  this  younger  race.  From  this  time  on  Greek  phi- 
losophers are  represented  as  becoming  pupils  of  the  Egyptian 
priests ;  and  without  question  the  learning  and  philosophy  of  the 
old  Egyptians  exercised  a  profound  influence  upon  the  open, 
receptive  mind  of  the  Greek  race,  that  was,  in  its  turn,  to  become 
the  teacher  of  the  world. 

The  son  of  Psammetichus,  Necho  H  (610-594  B.C.),  followed 
the  liberal  policy  marked  out  by  his  father.  In  order  to  be  able  to 
bring  together  at  any  time  his  war  ships  either  in  the  Red  Sea  or 


32  ANCIENT    EGYPT 

in  the  Mediterranean,  he  attempted  to  reopen  an  old  canal  uniting 
the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  which  had  been  dug  by  earlier  Pharaohs, 
but  had  now  become  unnavigable.  Failing  in  this  undertaking,  he 
fitted  out  an  exploring  expedition  for  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa, 
in  hopes  of  finding  a  natural  water  way  connecting  the  two  seas. 

The  expedition,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  actually  accom- 
plished the  feat  of  sailing  around  the  continent ;  for  the  historian 
Herodotus,  in  his  account  of  the  enterprise,  says  that  the  voyagers 
upon  their  return  reported  that,  when  they  were  rounding  the  cape, 
the  sun  was  on  their  right  hand  (to  the  north).  This  feature  of 
the  report,  which  led  Herodotus  to  disbelieve  it,  is  to  us  the  very 
strongest  evidence  possible  that  the  voyage  was  really  performed. 

31.  The  Last  of  the  Pharaohs.  —  Before  the  end  of  Necho's 
reign  Egypt  became  tributary  to  Babylon,  and  a  little  later  bowed 
beneath  the  Persian  yoke  (sec.  97).  Regaining  her  independ- 
ence, she  soon  lost  it  again.  From  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  B.C.  to  the  present  day  no  native  prince  has  sat 
upon  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs. 

Upon  the  extension  of  the  power  of  the  Macedonians  and  the 
Greeks  over  the  East  through  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the 
Great  (Chapter  XXVI),  Egypt  willingly  accepted  them  as  masters  ; 
and  for  three  centuries  the  valley  was  the  seat  of  the  renowned 
Graeco-Egyptian  empire  of  the  Ptolemies.  The  Romans  finally 
annexed  the  region  to  their  all-absorbing  empire  (30  B.C.). 

''  The  mission  of  Egypt  among  the  nations  was  fulfilled ;  it 
had  lit  the  torch  of  civilization  in  ages  inconceivably  remote, 
and  had  passed  it  on  to  other  peoples  of  the  West." 

HI.  Religion,  Arts,  and  General  Culture 

32.  Classes  of  Society. — Egyptian  society  was  divided  into  three 
chief  classes,^* — priests,  soldiers,  and  common  people;  the  last 
embracing  shepherds,  husbandmen,  shopkeepers,  and  artisans. 

14  These  divisions  are  more  properly  designated  as  classes  than  castes ;  for  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  latter,  as  existing  among  the  Hindus  (sec.  105),  are 
that  the  members  "  must  abstain  from  certain  forbidden  occupations,  contract  no 


THE  EGYPTIAN    SYSTEM   OF  WRITING  33 

The  sacerdotal  order  consisted  of  high  priests,  prophets,  scribes, 
keepers  of  the  sacred  robes  and  animals,  sacred  sculptors,  masons, 
and  embalmers.  They  enjoyed  freedom  from  taxation,  and  met 
the  expenses  of  the  temple  service  mainly  from  the  income  of  the 
sacred  lands,  which  are  said  to  have  embraced  one  third  of  the 
soil  of  the  country. 

The  priests  were  extremely  scrupulous  in  the  care  of  their  per- 
sons. They  bathed  twice  by  day  and  twice  by  night,  and  shaved 
the  entire  body  every  third  day.  Their  inner  clothing  was  linen, 
woolen  garments  being  thought  unclean ;  their  diet  was  plain  and 
even  abstemious,  in  order  that,  as  an  old  Greek  writer  explains, 
"their  bodies  might  sit  light  as  possible  about  their  souls." 

Next  to  the  priesthood  in  rank  and  honor  stood  the  military 
order.  Like  the  priests,  the  soldiers  formed  a  landed  class. 
To  each  soldier  was  given  a  tract  of  about  eight  acres,  exempt 
from  all  taxes.  When  not  in  actual  service  he  worked  on  his 
little  plot  of  land. 

33.  The  Egyptian  System  of  Writing.  —  Perhaps  the  greatest 
achievement  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  was  the  working  out  of  a 
system  of  writing.     By  the  opening  of  the  fifth  millennium  B.C. 


Fig.  19.  —  Forms  of  Egyptian  Writing.     {Aitev  //o/nme/) 
The  top  line  is  hieroglyphic  script ;  the  bottom  line  is  the  same  text  in  hieratic 

this  system  had  passed  through  all  the  stages  which  we  have 
already  indicated  as  marking  the  usual  development  of  a  written 
language  (sec.  12).  But  the  curious  thing  about  the  system  was 
this  :  when  an  improved  method  of  writing  had  been  worked  out 

alliance  beyond  the  limits  of  the  caste,  and  must  continue  to  practice  the  profession 
of  their  fathers " ;  whereas  among  the  Egyptians  there  were  no  such  restrictions 
laid  upon  the  two  principal  classes.  The  priest  might  become  a  soldier,  and  the 
soldier  a  priest,  or  the  same  person  might  be  both  at  once. 


34  ANCIENT   EGYPT 

the  old  method  was  not  discarded.     Hence  the  Egyptian  writing 

was   partly   picture   writing   and    partly  alphabetic  writing,   and 

exhibited  besides  all  the  intermediate  forms.     The  Egyptians,  as 

has  been  said,  had  developed  an  alphabet  without  knowing  it. 

Just  as  we   have  two  forms  of  letters,  one  for  printing  and 

another  for  writing,  so  the  Egyptians  employed  three  forms  of 

script :  the  hieroglyphic,  in  which  the  pictures  and  symbols  were 

carefully  drawn,  —  a  form   generally   employed   in   monumental 

inscriptions;  the  hieratic,  a  simplified  form  of  the  hieroglyphic, 

adapted  to  writing,  and  forming  the  greater  part  of  the  papyrus 

manuscripts ;  and  the  demotic  or  e7icho- 

rial,  a  still  further  simplification  of  the 

hieratic  form. 

34.  The  Rosetta  Stone  and  the  Key 

to   Egyptian   Writing.  —  The    key  to 

the   Egyptian  writing  was  discovered 

by  means  of  the  Rosetta  Stone,  which 

was  found  by  the  French  when  they  in- 
FiG.  20.  — The  Rosetta  j    j  t-  i      t.t       ■,         •  ^ 

Stone  vaded  Egypt  under  Napoleon  m  1798. 

This  precious  relic,  a  heavy  block  of 
black  basalt,  is  now  in  the  British  Museupi.  It  holds  an  inscrip- 
tion in  the  Egyptian  and  the  Greek  language,  which  is  written  in 
three  different  forms  of  script,  —  in  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  and 
demotic  and  in  Greek  characters.  The  chief  credit  of  deciphering 
the  Egyptian  script  and  of  opening  up  the  long-sealed  libraries 
of  Egyptian  learning  is  commonly  allotted  to  the  French  scholar 
Champollion.^^ 

35-  Egyptian  Literature The  literature  opened  up  to  us  by 

the  decipherment  of   the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics   is  varied  and 
instructive,  revealing  as  it  does  the  life  and  thought  and  scientific 

16  The  value  of  a  number  of  demotic  signs  was  discovered  by  Akerblad  (1802). 
In  the  hieroglyphic  text  the  English  scholar  Young  recognized  the  name  of  Ptolemy 
(Ptolemaios,  Ptolmis)  and  succeeded  in  deciphering  this  peculiar  script  (1818). 
ChampoUion  verified  the  values  assigned  to  some  symbols  by  a  comparison  of  the 
Rosetta  inscription  with  another  hieroglyphic  and  Greek  inscription  found  on  the 
island  of  Philae  (1822),  But  his  greatest  merit  consists  in  having  determined 
the  character  of  the  Egyptian  language  as  the  mother  of  the  Coptic,  with  which 
he  was  thoroughly  familiar. 


THE   EGYPTIAN   GODS  35 

attainments  of  old  Egypt  at  a  time  when  the  Greek  world  was 
yet  young.  There  is  the  ancient  Book  of  the  Dead,^^  intended 
for  the  use  and  instruction  of  the  soul  in  its  perilous  journey  to 
the  realms  of  the  blessed  in  the  nether  world ;  there  are  novels 
or  romances,  and  fairy  tales,  among  which  are  "  Cinderella  and 
the  Glass  Slipper,"  and  a  story  written  expressly  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  httle  son  of  Rameses  II;  autobiographies,  public  and 
private  letters,  fables. 


and    epics ;    treatises   on  (        Tv  I ^  ^    ' 

medicine,    astronomy,  ^-^ 


J[ 


and  various  other  scien-      /^    ~2 


C 


■"~"  o 


tific  subjects ;  and  books      V     ^~^ 

on  history  —  in  prose 

and  in  verse-whichfully  ^^^-  ^^--T^o  Royal  Names  in 

..       ,       ,     ,        ,  Hieroglyphics 

justify  the  declaration  of   ,*       *u   /:   .  r  .u  l-  ,  ,     , 

^          ■'  It  was  the  first  of  these  names  which  gave  the  clew 

Egyptian   priests  to  the  to  the  interpretation  of  the  hieroglyphic  script. 

Greek  philosopher  Solon :  Through  a  comparison  of  the  two  the  values  of 

_  _          _,          ,                           *  several  symbols  were  definitely  determined  i^" 

"You  Greeks  are  mere 

children,  talkative  and  vain  ;  you  know  nothing  at  all  of  the  past." 

36.  The  Egyptian  Gods.  —  It  has  been  said  of  man  that  he  is 
"  incurably  religious."  This  could  certainly  be  said  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  Their  thoughts  seem  to  have  dwelt  much  on  the  gods 
and  on  the  future  life. 

The  ideas  of  God  held  by  the  learned  among  the  Egyptians 
were,  according  to  the  Egyptologist  Budge,  almost  the  same  as 

16  The  chief  writing  material  used  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  was  the  noted 
papyrus  paper,  manufactured  from  a  reed  which  grew  in  the  marshes  and  along  the 
water  channels  of  the  Nile.  From  the  names  of  this  Egyptian  plant,  byblos  and 
/>aj>yrus,  come  our  words  "  Bible  "  and  "  paper." 

l*"  The  twelve  hieroglyphics  used  in  writing  these  names  have  the  following  values : 

AK,       ^s.1^        (]e,        f]o,        DP,         "^A,        c^:>or^T. 

<=>Pv,     ^=M,        (](]l(AI),nS, 

With  these  the  reader  will  easily  decipher  the  names.  It  should  be  noted  that  the 
last  two  signs  in  the  longer  word  are  used  merely  to  indicate  that  the  word  is  a 
feminine  proper  name,  and  that  for  the  sake  of  symmetry  one  symbol  is  sometimes 
placed  beneath  another.     The  upper  sign  should  be  taken  first. 


36 


ANCIENT   EGYPT 


those  of  the  Hebrew  teachers  of  a  later  time.  The  inscriptions 
read  :  "  God  is  a  spirit  and  no  man  hath  known  his  form ;  He 
is  the  one  Hving  and  true  God  ;  He  has  existed  from  the  beginning, 
and  He  is  life ;  He  is  the  creator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
and  all  that  therein  is." 

But  while  entertaining  such  lofty  views  of  the  Supreme  God, 
the  Egyptian  thinkers  never  came,  as  did  the  later  Hebrews,  to 
hold  the  idea  that  there  is  only  one  God  beside  whom  there  is  no 
other.  From  first  to  last  the  Egyptians  were  polytheists,  that  is, 
worshipers  of  many  gods. 

These  divinities  were  often  grouped  in  triads.  First  in  impor- 
tance among  these  groups  was  that  formed  by  Osiris,  Isis  (his  wife 
and  sister),  and  Horus,  their  son.  The  members  of  this  triad 
were  worshiped  throughout  Egypt. 

The  god  Set,  called  Typhon  by  the  Greek  writers,  was  the 
Satan  of  Egyptian  mythology.  While  the  beneficent  Osiris  was 
symbolized  by  the  life-giving  Nile,  the  malignant  Typhon  was 
emblemized  by  the  terrors  and  barrenness  of  the  desert. 

37.  Animal  Worship.  —  The  Egyptians  regarded  certain  ani- 
mals as  emblems  of  the  gods,  and  hence  worshiped  them.     To 

kill  one  of  these  sacred 
animals  was  adjudged  the 
greatest  impiety.  Persons 
so  unfortunate  as  to  harm 
one  through  accident  were 
sometimes  murdered  by 
the  infuriated  people. 
The  scarab  or  beetle  was 
especially  sacred,  being 
considered  an  emblem  of 
life. 

Not  only  were  various 
animals  held  sacred,  as  being  the  emblems  of  certain  deities,  but 
some  were  thought  to  be  real  gods.  Thus  the  soul  of  Osiris,  it 
was  imagined,  animated  the  body  of  some  bull,  which  might  be 
known  from  certain  spots  and  markings. 


Fig.  22.  —  Mummy  of  a  Sacred  Bull 
(From  a  photograph) 


EGYPTIAN  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE        37 

Upon  the  death  of  the  sacred  bull  or  Apis,  as  he  was  called, 
a  great  search,  accompanied  with  loud  lamentation,  was  made 
throughout  the  land  for  his  successor ;  for  the  moment  the  soul 
of  Osiris  departed  from  the  dying  bull  it  entered  a  calf  that 
moment  born.  The  body  of  the  deceased  Apis  was  carefully 
embalmed,  and,  amid  funeral  ceremonies  of  great  expense  and 
magnificence,  deposited  in  the  tomb  of  his  predecessors.^^ 

Many  explanations  have  been  given  to  account  for  the  existence 
of  such  a  debased  form  of  worship  among  so  cultured  a  j)eople 
as  the  ancient  Egyptians.  There  can  be  httle  doubt  that  the 
religious  system  of  Egypt  arose  from  a  mingling  of  the  religions 
of  the  two  races  which  seemed  to  have  united  to  form  the  Egyp- 
tians of  history  (sec.  22),  and  that  the  low  elements  in  it  were 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  ideas,  beliefs,  and  practices  of  the 
older  prehistoric  race  of  the  Nile  valley. 

38.  The  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life. — The  most  fruitful 
of  the  reHgious  ideas  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  the  one  of  greatest 
import  for  their  own  history  and  for  that  of  the  world,  was  their 
doctrine  of  a  future  life.  Among  no  other  people  of  antiquity  did 
the  life  beyond  the  tomb  seem  so  real  and  hold  so  large  a  place  in 
the  thoughts  of  the  living  as  among  the  people  of  old  Egypt. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  an  account  of  this  belief  for  the  reason 
that  there  were  different  forms  of  it  held  at  different  times  and  in 
different  places.  But  the  essential  part  of  the  belief  was  that  man 
has  a  double  or  soul  which  survives  the  death  of  the  body. 

This  belief  in  a  future  life,  taken  in  connection  with  certain 
ideas  respecting  the  nature  of  the  soul's  existence  in  the  other 
world  and  of  its  needs,  reacted  in  a  remarkable  way  upon  the 
earthly  life  of  the  people  of  ancient  Egypt.  It  was  the  cause 
and  motive  of  many  of  the  things  they  did. 

39.  The  Embalmment  of  the  Body.  —  The  first  need  of  the 
soul  was  the  possession  of  the  old  body,  upon  the  preservation  of 


18  In  185 1  Marietta  discovered  this  sepulchral  chamber  of  the  sacred  bulls  (the 
Serapeum).  It  is  a  narrow  gallery  two  thousand  feet  in  length  cut  in  the  Hmestone 
cliffs  just  opposite  the  site  of  ancient  Memphis.  A  large  number  of  immense  granite 
cofl&ns  and  several  mummified  bulls  were  found. 


38 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


which  the  existence  of  the  soul  depended.  If  the  body  should 
waste  away,  the  double,  it  was  believed,  would  waste  away  with 
it.^^  Hence  the  anxious  care  with  which  the  Egyptians  sought  to 
preserve  the  body  against  decay  by  embalming  it. 

In  the  various  processes  of  embalming,  use  was  made  of  oils, 
resins,  bitumen,  and  various  aromatic  gums.  The  bodies  of  the 
wealthy  were  preserved  by  being  filled  with  costly  aromatic  and 
resinous  substances,  and  swathed  in  bandages  of  linen.  To  a  body 
thus  treated  is  applied  the  term  mummy. 

As  this  method  of  embalming  was  very  costly,  the  bodies  of 
the  poorer  classes  were  simply  "  salted  and  dried,"  and  wrapped 
in  coarse  mats,  preparatory  to  burial.     It  is  estimated  that  from 

the  time  of  Menes  to  the  opening 
of  the  Christian  era  200,000,000 
mummies  were  laid  in  the  earth  in 
Upper  Egypt  alone. 

To  this  practice  of  the  Egyptians 
of  embalming  their  dead  we  owe 
it  that  we  can  look  upon  the  actual 
faces  of  many  of  the  ancient  Pha- 
raohs. Towards  the  close  of  the  last 
century  (in  1881)  the  mummies  of 
Thothmes  III,  Seti  I,  Rameses  II, 
and  those  of  about  forty  other  kings, 
queens,  princes,  and  priests,  em- 
bracing nearly  all  the  Pharaohs 
of  the  Eighteenth,  Nineteenth, 
Twentieth,  and  Twenty-First  Dynasties,  were  found  in  a  secret 
rock  chamber  near  Thebes.  The  faces  of  Seti  and  Rameses,  both 
strong  faces,  are  so  remarkably  preserved  that,  in  the  words  of 
Maspero,  "were  their  subjects  to  return  to  the  earth  to-day  they 
could  not  fail  to  recognize  their  old  sovereigns." 


Fig.  23.  —  Profile  of  Ram- 
eses 11.  (From  a  photo- 
graph of  the  mummy) 


19  This  is  Maspero's  view.  Wiedemann's  is  somewhat  different.  "  The  destruc- 
tion of  the  mummy,"  he  says,  "did  not  involve  the  destruction  of  the  soul,  but  it 
narrowed  the  soul's  circle  of  activity  and  limited  its  means  of  transmigration"  (The 
Ancient  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  the  bnniortality  of  the  Sou/,  p.  68). 


THE  PYRAMIDS  AS  SEPULCHERS 


39 


40.  The  Pyramids  as  Sepulchers ;   the  Rock-Hewn  Tombs.  — 

The  same  belief  which  led  to  the  embalmment  of  the  body  led  also 
to  the  construction  of  secure  and  magnificent  tombs.  Upon  the 
temporary  homes  of  the  living  the  Egyptians  bestowed  little  care, 
but  upon  the  "  eternal  abodes  "  of  the  dead  they  la\'ished  unstinted 
labor  and  cost. 

The  tombs  of  the  official  class  and  of  the  rich  were  sometimes 
structures  of  brick  or  stone,  but  more  generally  they  were  cham- 
bers cut  in  the  limestone  cliffs  that  rim  the  Nile  valley. 

The  bodies  of  the  earlier  Pharaohs  were  hidden  away  in  the  heart 
of  great  mountains  of  stone  —  the  pyramids.  Many  of  the  later 
Pharaohs  constructed  for  themselves  magnificent  rock-cut  tombs, 
some  of  which  are  perfect  labyrinths  of  corridors,  halls,  and  cham- 
bers. In  the  hills  back  of  Thebes,  in  the  so-called  Valley  of  the 
Tombs  of  the  Kings,  there  are  so  many  of  these  royal  sepulchers 
that  the  place  has  been  called  the  "Westminster  Abbey  of  Egypt." 

41.  The  "Accompanying  Gifts  "  or  the  "Dowery  of  the  Dead." — 
We  have  seen  that  the  first  need  of  the  soul  was  the  preservation 
of  the  old  body.  Along  with  the  mummy  there  were  often  placed 
in  the  tomb  a  number 
of  wood,  clay,  or  gold 
portrait  statuettes  of 
the  deceased.  The  lid 
of  the  coffin  was  also 
carved  in  the  form  of 
a  mummy.  The  idea 
here  was  that,  if 
through  any  accident 
the  body  were  destroyed,  the  soul  might  avail  itself  of  these  sub- 
stitutes. It  was  the  effort  put  forth  by  the  artist  to  make  these 
portrait  images  and  carvings  lifelike  that  contributed  to  bring 
early  Egyptian  sculpture  to  such  a  high  degree  of  excellence. 

But  not  all  the  wants  of  the  soul  were  met  by  the  mummy  and 
the  substitute  portrait  images.  It  had  need  also  of  food  and 
drink,  and  of  everything  else  that  the  deceased  had  needed  while 
on  earth.     Hence  all  these  things  were  put  into  the  tomb.     But 


Fig.  24.  —  Mummy  Case  with  Mummy 


40 


ANCIENT  EGYPT 


as  it  was  only  the  spirit  or  double  of  the  things  thus  set  out  which 
the  soul  could  make  use  of,^*^  it  came  to  be  believed  that  a  picture 
or  an  inexpensive  model  in  wood  or  clay  of  these  objects  would 
serve  just  as  well  as  the  actual  objects  themselves. 

Thus  the  pictures  of  different  kinds  of  food  and  drink  supplied 
the  soul  with  "  an  unsubstantial  yet  satisfying  repast " ;  the  rep- 
resentation of  a  vineyard  provided  it  with 
a  vineyard  in  the  Osirian  land  ;  the  picture 
of  a  hunting  scene  afforded  it  the  diver- 
sion of  the  chase ;  and  the  picture  of  a 
boat  made  possible  a  pleasure  sail  on  the 
celestial  Nile. 

It  was  this  belief  which  covered  the 
walls  of  the  Egyptian  tombs  with  those 
bas-reliefs  and  paintings  which  have  con- 
verted for  us  these  chambers  of  the  dead 
into  picture  galleries  where  the  Egypt  of 
the  Pharaohs  rises  again  into  life  before 
our  eyes. 

42.  The  Judgment  of  the  Dead  and  the 
Negative  Confession.  —  Death  was  a  great 
equalizer  among  the  Egyptians  ;  king  and 
peasant  alike  must  appear  before  the  dread 
tribunal  of  Osiris  and  render  an  account  of  the  deeds  done  in 
the  body.  Here  the  soul  sought  justification  in  such  declarations 
as  these,  which  form  what  is  called  the  Negative  Confession :  "  I 
have  not  blasphemed"  ;  "  I  have  not  stolen"  ;  "I  have  not  slain 
any  one  treacherously"  ;  "  I  have  not  slandered  any  one  or  made 
false  accusation  "  ;  "I  have  not  reviled  the  face  of  my  father  "  ; 
"  I  have  not  eaten  my  heart  through  with  envy."  ^^ 

20  Compare  the  thought  of  the  savage  who  breaks  the  bow  or  other  weapon  placed 
in  the  grave  with  the  body  of  its  former  owner,  in  order  that  its  spirit  may  be  released. 

21  A  statuette  of  a  workman  placed  in  the  tomb  along  with  the  mummy.  It  was 
thought  that  the  recital  of  certain  magical  formulas  imparted  life  to  the  image.  A 
number  of  these  figures  put  in  the  tomb  supplied  the  deceased  with  servants  in  the 
other  world. 

22  It  will  be  noted  that  these  are  in  substance  the  equivalent  of  six  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  of  the  Hebrews. 


Fig.  25. — "Servant 
FOR  THE  Under- 
world." 21  (After 
Wiedemann) 


THE   JUDGMENT   OF   THE   DEAD 


41 


In  other  declarations  of  the  soul  we  find  a  singularly  close 
approach  to  Christian  morality,  as  for  instance  in  this  :  "  I  have 
given  bread  to  the  hungry  and  drink  to  him  who  was  athirst ;  I 
have  clothed  the  naked  with  garments." 

The  truth  of  what  the  soul  thus  asserted  in  its  own  behalf  was 
tested  by  the  balances  of  the  gods.  In  one  of  the  scales  was 
placed  the  heart  of  the  deceased ;  in  the  other,  a  symbol  of  truth 
or  righteousness.  The  soul  stood  by  watching  the  weighing.  If 
the  heart  were  found  not  light,  the  soul  was  welcomed  to  the 


Fig.  26.  —  The  Judgment  of  the  Dead.     (From  a  papyrus) 
Showing  the  weighing  of  the  heart  of  the  deceased  in  the  scales  of  truth 

companionship  of  the  good  Osiris.  The  fate  of  the  unjustified 
seems  to  have  been  annihilation. 

This  judgment  scene  in  the  nether  world  forms  the  most  in- 
structive memorial  of  old  Egypt  that  has  been  preserved  to  us. 
We  here  learn  what  sort  of  a  conscience  the  Egyptian  had  devel- 
oped by  the  dawn  of  history ;  for  the  confession  and  the  doctrine 
of  a  judgment  day  date  from  the  earliest  period  of  Egyptian  civil- 
ization. The  moral  teachers  of  Egypt  here  anticipated  the  moral 
teachers  of  Israel.  "  In  the  judgment  hall  of  Osiris,"  writes  Sayce, 
"  we  find  the  first  expression  of  the  doctrine  which  was  echoed  so 
many  ages  later  by  the  Hebrew  prophets,  that  what  the  gods  require 
is  mercy  and  righteousness  rather  than  orthodoxy  of  belief." 

43.  Architecture,  Sculpture,  and  Minor  Arts.  —  At  a  compara- 
tively early  period  Egyptian  civilization  ceased  to  be  progressive. 


42 


ANCIENT   EGYPT 


The  past  was  taken  as  a  model,  just  as  it  is  in  China  to-day. 
So  what  is  here  said  of  the  arts  is,  speaking  broadly,  as  true  of 
them  in  the  third  millennium  before  Christ,  or  even  earUer,  as  at 

any  later   period   of    Egyptian 
history. 

In  the  building  art  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  in  some  respects, 
have  never  been  surpassed. 
The  Memphian  pyramids  built 
by  the  earlier,  and  the  Theban 
temples  raised  by  the  later 
Pharaohs  have  excited  the  as- 
tonishment and  the  admiration 
alike  of  all  the  successive  gen- 
erations that  have  looked  upon 
them.  "Thebes,"  says  Lenor- 
mant,  "  in  spite  of  all  the  rav- 
ages of  time  and  of  the  barba- 
rian still  presents  the  grandest, 
the  most  prodigious  assemblage 
of  buildings  ever  erected  by  the 
hand  of  man." 

In  the  cutting  and  shaping  of 

enormous  blocks  of  the  hardest 

stone,  the  Egyptians  achieved 

"It  is 

of   the 


Fig. 


An  Egyptian  Obelisk 


results  which  modern   stonecutters  can   scarcely  equal, 
doubtful,"  says   Rawlinson,   "whether  the   steam-sawing 
present  day  could  be  trusted  to  produce  in  ten 
years  from  the  quarries  of  Aberdeen  a  single 
obelisk  such  as  those  which  the  Pharaohs  set 
up  by  dozens."  ^^ 


Fig.  28.  —  Tubular 
Drill  Hole 


23  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  vol.  i,  p.  498.  The  Egyp- 
tian stonecutters  did  much  of  their  work  with  bronze  tools, 
to  which  they  were  able  by  some  process  to  give  a  very 
hard  edge.     In  the  very  earliest  times  they  had  invented 

the  tubular  drill,  which  they  set  with  hard  cutting  points.  With  this  instrument  they 
did  work  which  engineers  of  to-day  say  could  not  be  surpassed  with  the  modem 
diamond  drill.     See  Flinders  Petrie,  Ten  Years^  Digging  in  Egypt,  pp.  26,  27, 


Plate  IV.  —  The  Great  Hall  of  Columns  at  Karnak 
(From  a  photograph) 


THE    SCIENXES 


43 


Eg}'ptian  sculpture  seems  to  have  grown  out  of  pictorial  writ- 
ing. The  figure  or  character,  at  first  a  mere  outline  drawing,  was 
after  a  time  cut  into  the  rock  surface,  and  next  the  rock  was 
chiseled  away  so  as  to  leave  the  figure  in  low  relief.  The  Eg)'p- 
tians  barely  reached  the  point  so  early  attained  by  the  Greeks,  who 
cut  the  figure  clear  around,  and  forced  it  to  stand  out  boldly,  away 
from  all  support.  As  we  have  seen  (sec.  25),  sculpture  was  at 
its  best  in  the  earliest  period ;  that  it  became  so  imitative,  unpro- 
gressive,  and  rigid  was  due  to  the  influence  of  religion.  The 
artist,  in  the  portrayal  of  the  figures  of  the  gods,  was  not  allowed 
to  change  a  single  hne  of  the  sacred  form.  Wilkinson  says  that 
Menes  would  have  recog- 
nized the  statue  of  Osiris 
in  the  temples  of  the  last 
of  the  Pharaohs. 

In  many  of  the  minor 
arts  the  Egyptians  at- 
tained a  surprisingly  high 
degree  of  excellence. 
They  were  able  in  color- 
ing glass  to  secure  tints 
as  brilliant  and  beautiful  as  any  which  modern  art  has  been  able  to 
produce.  In  gem  cutting  they  showed  wonderful  skill.  The  sacred 
scarabaeus  (beetle)  was  reproduced  with  linings  so  delicate  that  it 
is  almost  certain  that  magnifying  glasses  were  used  in  the  work. 

44.  The  Sciences:  Astronomy,  Geometry,  and  Medicine. — The 
cloudless  and  brilliant  skies  of  Egypt  invited  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Nile  valley  to  the  study  of  the  heavenly  bodies.-"*  And  another 
circumstance  closely  related  to  their  ver}-  existence,  the  inundation 
of  the  Nile,  following  the  changing  cycles  of  the  stars,  could  not 
but  have, incited  them  to  the  watching  and  predicting  of  astro- 
nomical movements.  Their  obser\-ations  led  them  to  discover  the 
length,  very  nearly,  of  the  sidereal  year,  which  they  made  to  consist 
of  365  days,  every  fourth  year  adding  one  day,  making  the  number 


Fig.  29.  —  A  Scarab  Amulet 


24  Astrological  speculations  ^\-ere  mingled  with  all  the  more  solid  astronomical 
attainments  of  the  Egyptians. 


44  ANCIENT   EGYPT 

for  that  year  366.  This  was  the  calendar  that  Julius  Caesar  intro- 
duced into  the  Roman  Empire,  and  which,  slightly  reformed  by 
Pope  Gregory  XIII  in  1582,  has  been  the  system  employed  by 
almost  all  the  civilized  world  up  to  the  present  day. 

The  Greeks  accounted  for  the  early  rise  of  the  science  of 
geometry  among  the  Egyptians  by  the  necessity  they  were  under 
of  reestablishing  each  year  the  boundaries  of  their  fields  —  the 
inundation  obliterating  old  landmarks  and  divisions.  The  science 
thus  forced  upon  their  attention  was  cultivated  with  zeal  and 
success.  A  single  papyrus  has  been  discovered  that  holds  twelve 
geometrical  theorems. 

The  Egyptian  physicians  relied  largely  on  magic,  for  every  ail- 
ment was  supposed  to  be  caused  by  a  demon  that  must  be  expelled 
by  means  of  magical  rites  and  incantations.  But  they  also  used 
drugs  of  various  kinds ;  the  ciphers  or  characters  employed  by 
modern  apothecaries  to  designate  grains  and  drams  are  of  Egyp- 
tian invention. 

45-  Egypt's  Contribution  to  Civilization. — Egypt  made  valu- 
able gifts  to  civilization.  From  the  Nile  came  the  germs  of  much 
found  in  the  later  culture  of  the  peoples  of  Western  Asia,  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  of  the  nations  of  modern  Europe.  "  We 
are  the  heirs  of  the  civiHzed  past,"  says  Sayce,  "  and  a  goodly 
portion  of  that  civilized  past  was  the  creation  of  ancient  Egypt." 

And  as  we  should  naturally  suppose,  it  was  in  the  sphere  of 
religion  that  Egypt's  bequest  to  us  was  largest.  Thus,  for  instance, 
the  doctrine  of  immortality,  which  entered  the  Western  world  with 
Christianity,  stands  in  close  relation  to  the  Egyptian  doctrine  of  a 
future  life.  "  In  Egypt,"  says  Wiedemann,  <'  the  Osirian  faith 
and  dogma  were  the  precursors  of  Christianity,  the  foundations 
upon  which  it  was  able  to  build ;  and  altogether  apart  from  their 
intrinsic  worth  and  far-reaching  influence,  it  is  this  which  consti- 
tutes their  significance  in  the  history  of  the  world."  ^^ 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Records  of  the  Past  (New  Series,  edited 
by  Sayce),  vol.  iii,  "  The  Precepts  of  Ptah-Hotep."  Petrie's  Egyptian  Tales 
(Second  Series),  ''Anpu  and  Bata.''      "The  description  of  Bata  is  one  of 

25  TJie  Ancient  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  Immortality^  p.  x. 


REFERENCES  45 

the  most  beautiful  character  drawmgs  of  the  past "  (Petrie).  Herodotus. 
ii.  1-14.  The  student  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  parts  of  Herodotus' 
work  devoted  to  the  Orient  have  a  very  different  historical  value  from  that 
possessed  by  those  portions  of  the  history  which  deal  primarily  with  Greek 
affairs.  "  The  net  result  of  Oriental  research,"  says  Professor  Sayce,  "  in 
its  bearing  upon  Herodotus  is  to  show  that  the  greater  part  of  what  he 
professes  to  tell  us  of  the  history  of  Egypt,  Babylonia,  and  Persia  is  really 
a  collection  of  '  marchen,'  or  popular  stories,  current  among  the  Greek 
loungers  and  half-caste  dragomen  on  the  skirts  of  the  Persian  empire.  .  .  . 
After  all,  ...  it  may  be  questioned  whether  they  are  not  of  higher  value 
for  the  history  of  the  human  mind  than  the  most  accurate  descriptions  of 
kings  and  generals,  of  wars  and  treaties  and  revolutions." 

References  (Modern).  —  Maspero,  The  Dawn  of  Civilization,  chaps, 
i-vi ;  The  Struggle  of  the  N'ations,  chaps,  i-v ;  and  Manual  of  Egyptiati 
ArchcEology.  Petrie,  Ten  Years'  Digging  in  Egypt  and  A  History  of 
Egypt,  vols.  i-iv.  Rawlinson,  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  2  vols.,  and 
Story  of  Ancient  Egypt.  Wiedemann,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians 
and  The  Ancient  Egyptian  Doct7'ine  of  the  Dntnortality  of  the  Soul.  Wil- 
kinson, Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  ;  should  be  used 
with  care  —  portions  are  antiquated.  Erman,  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt. 
Budge,  Egyptian  Religiojt,  Egyptian  Ideas  of  the  Euture  Life,  and  The 
Mummy.  Sayce,  The  Religions  of  Ancie7it  Egypt  and  Babylonia.  Perrot 
and  Chipiez,  History  of  Art  in  Ancient  Egypt. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  Book  of  the  Dead.  There  is  a 
translation  by  Budge  and  another  by  Davis.  2.  Some  results  of  recent 
excavations.  See  Petrie.  3.  The  ancient  water  system.  4.  The  nature  of 
the  government.  5.  The  myth  of  Osiris  and  the  Osirian  doctrine.  6.  His- 
tory of  the  statuettes  of  servants  placed  in  the  tomb.  See  Maspero  and 
Wiedemann. 


Fig.  30.  —  Phil^,  "the  Pearl  of  Egypt" 


Fig.  31.  —  The  Babil  Mound  at  Babylon  as  it  appeared  in   1811 

CHAPTER    IV 

THE  EARLY  CITY-STATES  OF  BABYLONIA  AND  THE  OLD 
BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE 

(From  about  5000  to   11 00  B.C.) 

I.   Political  History 

46.  The  Tigris  and  Euphrates  Valley ;  the  Upper  and  the  Lower 
Country.  —  We  must  now  trace  the  upspringing  of  civilization  in 
Babylonia,  "The  Asian  Egypt." 

As  in  the  case  of  Egypt,  so  in  that  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
valley,^  the  physical  features  of  the  country  exerted  a  great  influ- 
ence upon  the  history  of  its  ancient  peoples.  Differences  in 
geological  structure  divide  this  region  into  an  upper  and  a  lower 
dis'trict ;  and  this  twofold  division  in  natural  features  is  reflected, 
as  we  shall  see,  throughout  its  political  history. 

The  northern  part  of  the  valley,  the  portion  that  comprised 
ancient  Assyria,  consists  of  undulating  plains,  broken  in  places 
by  mountain  ridges.  This  region  nourished  a  hardy  and  warlike 
race,  and  became  the  seat  of  a  great  miUtary  empire. 

1  The  ancient  Greeks  gave  to  the  land  embraced  by  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates 
the  name  of  Mesopotamia,  which  means  "  the  land  between  the  rivers." 

46 


THE  TIGRIS  AND  EUPHRATES  VALLEY  47 

The  southern  part  of  the  valley,  the  part  known  as  Babylonia, 
is,  like  the  delta  region  of  Egypt,  an  alluvial  deposit.  The 
making  of  new  land  by  the  rivers  has  gone  on  steadily  during 
historic  times.  The  ruins  of  one  of  the  ancient  seaports  of  the 
country  (Eridu)  lie  over  a  hundred  miles  inland  from  the  pres- 
ent head  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  In  ancient  times  the  land  was 
protected  against  the  inundations  of  the  rivers,  and  w^atered  in 
seasons  of  drought,  by  a  stupendous  system  of  dikes  and  canals, 


-t0:^.' 


i  J' 


*  ^  - 


V-  ■ 
^    - 


Fig.  32,  —  Ancieint  Babylonian  Canals 


which  at  the  present  day,  in  a  ruined  and  sand-choked  condition, 
cover  like  a  network  the  face  of  the  country. 

The  productions  of  Babylonia  are  very  like  those  of  the  Nile 
valley.  The  luxuriant  growth  of  grain  upon  these  alluvial  flats 
excited  the  wonder  of  the  Greek  travelers  who  visited  the  East. 
Herodotus  will  not  tell  the  whole  truth  for  fear  his  veracity 
may  be  doubted.  It  is  not  strange  that  tradition  should  have 
located  here  Paradise,  that  primeval  garden  "  out  of  the  ground 
of  which  God  made  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the 
sight  and  good  for  food."  This  favored  plain  in  a  remote  period 
of  antiquity  became  the  seat  of  an  agricultural,  industrial,  and 


48        THE   EARLY  CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 


commercial  population  among  which  the  arts  of  civilized  life 
found  probably  their  very  earliest  development. 

47.  The  Babylonians  a  Mixed  People.  —  The  original  inhabit- 
ants of  Babylonia  are  thought  by  the  majority  of  Assyrian  scholars 
to  have  belonged  to  a  non-Semitic  race,  and  are  generally  known  as 
Sumerians,  from  Sumer,  the  name  of  one  of  the  ancient  divisions 
of  the  country.    They  seem  to  have  migrated  into  the  valley  from 


Map  of  the  Tigris-Euphrates  Valley 

the  mountain  district  on  the  northeast.  These  people  are  believed 
to  have  laid  the  basis  of  civilization  in  the  Euphrates  valley. 

At  a  very  early  time  there  seem  to  have  come  into  the  country 
from  Arabia  immigrants  of  Semitic  race.  These  foreigners  were 
nomadic  in  habits,  and  altogether  much  less  cultured  than  the 
Sumerians.  Gradually,  however,  they  adopted  the  arts  of  the 
people  among  whom  they  had  settled,  retaining,  however,  their 
own  language,  which  in  the  course  of  time  superseded  the  speech 
of  the  original  inhabitants.  The  union  of  the  two  races  formed 
the  Babylonians  of  history. 

48.  The  Age  of  City-States  (about  5000-2250  b.c.)  ;  Sargon  I 
(about  3800  B.C.).  — When  the  light  of  history  first  falls  upon  the 
Mesopotamian  lands,  that  is  about  5000  B.C.,  it  reveals  the  lower 


THE   AGE    OF   CITY-STATES 


49 


river  plain  filled  with  city-states  ^  like  those  which  we  find  later 
in  Greece  and  in  Italy.  Each  city  had  its  patron  god  and  was 
ruled  by  a  king. 

From  the  old  Babylonian  libraries  (sec.  54)  patient  scholars 
are  gradually  reading  the  wonderful  story  of  these  ancient  cities, 
probably  the  oldest  built 
by  man.  The  political  side 
of  their  history  may,  for  our 
present  purpose,  be  sum- 
marized by  saying  that  for 
a  period  of  almost  three 
millenniums — a  period 
longer  than  that  which  has 
passed  since  Athens  and 
Rome  appeared  in  history 
—  these  records,  as  far  as 
they  have  become  known 
to  us,  are  annals  of  wars 
waged  for  supremacy  by 
one  city  and  its  gods  against  other  cities  and  their  gods. 

Of  all  the  kings  whose  names  have  already  been  recovered 
from  the  monuments  w^e  shall  here  speak  only  of  Sargon  I,  a 
Semitic  king  of  Agade,  whose  reign  forms  some  such  landmark  in 
early  Babylonian  history  as  that  of  the  great  Charlemagne  forms 
in  what  w^e  may  regard  as  the  corresponding  period  in  the  history 
of  Western  Europe.^  An  inscription  recently  deciphered  makes 
this  king  to  have  reigned  as  early  as  3800  b.c.^ 

Sargon  built  up  a  powerful  state  in  Babylonia  and  extended  his 
rule  to  the  Mediterranean,  thus  bringing  the  civilization  of  the 
Euphrates  into  significant  contact  with  that  rising  in  the  West. 

2  Prominent  among  these  early  cities  were  Eridu,  Ur,  Larsam,  Uruk,  Shirpuria, 
Nippur,  Sippar,  and  Agade. 

3  "  He  may  fairly  be  called  the  Charlemagne  of  Babylonian  history."  —  Peters, 
Nippur^  vol.  ii,  p.  251. 

4  The  inscription  from  which  the  date  is  derived  is  upon  a  cylinder  of  the  last 
Babylonian  king,  Nabonidus,  who  reigned  555-558  B.C.  He  says  that  in  restoring 
a  temple  at  Sippar  he  found  a  cylinder  which  had  been  deposited  3200  years  before 
his  day  by  Naram-Sin,  the  son  of  Sargon. 


Fig.  33.  —  Door  Socket  of  Sargon  I 
(From  Records  of  the  Past) 


50        THE   EARLY   CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 


Yet  not  as  a  warrior  but  as  a  patron  of  letters  is  Sargon  destined 
to  a  sure  place  in  history.  He  caused  to  be  collected  and  edited 
the  literature  of  the  early  period,  and  deposited  the  books  in  great 
libraries,  which  he  established  or  enlarged,  —  the  oldest  and  most 
valuable  libraries  of  the  ancient  world. 

49.  The  Rise  of  Babylon :  Hammurabi  founds  the  Old  Babylonian 
Empire  (about  2250  B.C.). —  From  the  remotest  times  the  city- 
states  of  Babylonia  had  for  enemies  the  kings  of  Elam,  a  country 

bordering  Babylonia 
on  the  east,  and  of 
which  Susa  was  the 
capital  For  cen- 
turies at  a  time  the 
Elamite  kings  held 
the  cities  of  the  plain 
in  a  state  of  more  or 
less  complete  vassal- 
age. Their  dominion 
was  finally  broken  by 
a  king  of  Babylon,  a  city  which  had  been  gradually  rising  into 
prominence,  and  which  was  to  give  to  the  whole  country  the 
name  by  which  it  is  best  known  —  Babylonia.  The  name  of  this 
king  was  Hammurabi  (about  2250  B.C.).  He  united  under  his 
rule  all  the  cities  of  Babylonia,  and  became  the  true  founder  of 
what  is  known  as  the  Old  Babylonian  Empire. 
'  Hammurabi  has  been  called  the  Babylonian  Moses,  for  the  rea- 
son that  he  promulgated  a  code  of  laws  which  in  some  respects 
is  remarkably  like  the  Mosaic  code  of  the  Hebrews.  Concerning 
this  oldest  system  of  laws  in  the  world  we  shall  say  something  a 
little  farther  on  (sec.  61). 

50.  The  Old  Babylonian  Empire  eclipsed  by  the  Rising  Assyrian 
Empire.  —  For  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years  after  Hammu- 
rabi, Babylon  continued  to  be  the  political  and  commercial 
center  of  an  empire  of  varying  fortunes,  of  changing  dynasties, 
and  of  shifting  frontiers.  This  long  history,  still  only  very  imper- 
fectly known  to  us,  we  pass  without  notice. 


Fig.  34.  —  Impression    of    a    Seal    of    Sar- 
gon I.     (Date  about  3800  B.C.) 

"  Must  be  ranked  among  the  masterpieces  of  Oriental 
engraving"  (Maspero) 


THE   REMAINS   OF   THE   BABYLONIAN   CITIES     51 

Meanwhile  a  Semitic  power  had  been  slowly  developing  in 
the  North.  This  was  the  Assyrian  Empire,  the  later  heart  and 
center  of  which  was  the  great  city  of  Nineveh.  For  a  long  time 
Assyria  was  practically  a  province  of  the  lower  kingdom ;  but  in 
728  B.C.  Babylonia  was  conquered  by  an  Assyrian  king  (Tiglath- 
Pileser  III),  and  from  that  time  on  to  625  B.C.  the  country  was 
for  the  most  part  under  Assyrian  control. 

II.  Arts  and  General  Culture 

51.  The  Remains  of  the  Babylonian  Cities  and  Public  Buildings. 

—  The  Babylonian  plains  are  dotted  with  enormous  mounds, 
generally  inclosed  by  vast  crumbled  ramparts  of  earth.  These 
"heaps"  are  the  remains  of  the  great  walled  cities,  the  palaces, 
temples,  and  shrines  of  the  ancient  Babylonians.  The  peculiar 
nature  of  these  ruins  arises  from  the  character  of  the  ancient 
Babylonian  edifices  and  the  kind  of  building  material  used  in 
their  construction. 

In  the  first  place,  in  order  to  secure  for  their  temples  and 
palaces  a  firm  foundation  on  the  water-soaked  land,  as  well  as  to 
lend  to  them  a  certain  dignity  or  to  render  them  more  easily 
defended,  the  Babylonian  kings  raised  their  public  buildings  on 
enormous  platforms  of  earth  or  adobe.  These  structures  were 
often  many  acres  in  extent  and  were  raised  generally  to  a  height 
of  forty  or  more  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plain. 

Upon  these  immense  platforms  were  built  the  temples  of  the 
gods  and  the  palaces  of  the  king.  The  country  affording  neither 
timber  nor  stone,  recourse  was  had  to  sun-dried  bricks  as  the 
chief  building  material,  burnt  brick  being  used,  in  the  main,  only 
for  the  outer  casing  of  the  walls.  The  buildings  were  one-storied, 
with  thick  and  heavy  walls,  and  with  roofs  of  huge  cedar  beams. 
Often  the  lower  portion  of  the  walls  of  the  chief  courts  and 
chambers  were  paneled  with  glazed  bricks. 

In  their  decay  these  edifices  have  sunk  down  into  great  heaps 
of  earth,  which  the  storms  of  centuries  have  furrowed  with 
deep  ravines,  giving  many  of  them   the  appearance  of  natural 


52 


THE   EARLY   CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 


ruin-crowiied  hills,  for  which  in  truth  some  of  the  earher  visitors 
to  Babylonia  mistook  them. 

52.  Excavations  and  Discoveries. — About  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  some  mounds  of  the  upper  country,  near  and 
on  the  site  of  ancient  Nineveh,  were  excavated,  and  the  world 
was  astonished  to  see  rising  as  from  the  tomb  the  palaces  of  the 


Fig.  35.  —  Excavation  showing  rAVEMPixTS  in  a  Court  of  the 
Temple  of  Bel  at  Nippur.     (After  Hilprecht) 

The  lower  pavement,  marked  "  i,"  was  put  down  by  Sargon  I  and  Naram-Sin 
(about  3800  B.C.),  and  the  upper  one,  marked  "  5,"  by  the  Assyrian  king  Asshur-bani- 
pal  (668-626  ?  B.C.),  The  pavements  are  thus  separated  by  a  period  of  over  3000  years. 

great  Assyrian  kings  (sec.  69).  This  was  the  beginning  of  exca- 
vations and  discoveries  in  the  Mesopotamian  lands  which  during 
the  past  half  century  have  restored  the  history  of  long-forgotten 
empires,  reconstructed  the  history  of  the  Orient,  and  given  us 
a  new  beginning  for  universal  history. 

Some  of  the  most  important  finds  in  Babylonia  were  made  during 
the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  French  at  Tello,'' 

5  Or  Telloh,  the  site  of  ancient  Lagash.  Here  magnificent  statues  showing  a 
remarkably  high  development  of  sculpture,  ruins  of  large  temples,  and  an  extensive 
temple  library  particularly  rich  in  Sumerian  writings,  were  found. 


CUNEIFORM   WRITING 


53 


:^^ 


^-^^- 


"%'fe^ 


-rJ^. 


fe 


and  by  the  Expedition  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  on  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Xippur.  The  excavation  here  of  the  ruins  of 
the  great  temple  of  Bel 
brought  to  light  memorials 
which  prove  that  this  city 
was  one  of  the  religious 
centers  of  the  old  Baby- 
lonian world  for  more  than 
four  thousand  years,  —  a 
period  more  than  twice  as 
long  as  that  during  which 
Rome  has  been  the  reli- 
gious center  of  Catholic 
Christendom. 

One  of  the  most  valuable 
things  unearthed  at  Nippur 
was  the  temple  library. 
But  to  appreciate  the 
import  of  this  a  word  is 
here  necessary  concerning 
the  Babylonian  system  of  writing  and  its  decipherment. 

53.  Cuneiform  Writing.  —  From  the  earliest  period  known  to 
us,  the  Babylonians  were  in  possession  of  a  system  of  phonetic 
writing.     To  this    system    the   term   cuneiforjji   ("from    cimeus,  a 

Fig.  37.  —  Cuneiform  Writing 
Translation :  ••  Five  thousand  mighty  cedars  I  spread  for  its  roof  " 


Fig. 


36.  —  Arch  discovered  at  Nip- 
pur.    (After  Hilprecht) 
This  is  the  oldest  true  arch  kno\s"n 


wedge)  has  been  given  on  account  of  its  wedge-shaped  char- 
acters. The  signs  assumed  this  peculiar  form  from  being 
impressed  upon  soft  clay  tablets  with  a  triangular  writing  instru- 
ment (stylus). 


54 


THE   EARLY   CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 


This  system  of  writing  had  been  developed  out  of  an  earlier 
system  of  picture  writing,  as  is  plainly  shown  by  a  comparison  of 
the  earUer  with  the  later  forms  of  the  characters  (Fig.  38).     The 


MEANING 

OUTLINE 
CHARACTER, 
B.  C.   4500 

ARCHAIC 
CUNEIFORM, 
B.  C.   2500 

ASSYRIAN, 
B.  C.   700 

UTE 

BABYLONIAN, 
B.C.   500 

I. 

The  sun 

<> 

<> 

^T 

^■ 

2. 

God,  heaven 

* 

•*- 

^^ 

»^ 

3- 

Mountain 

i< 

^< 

V 

i< 

4- 

Man 

/WTK 

^^^ 

^ 

^ 

5- 

Ox 

=!> 

^ 

i^< 

6. 

Fish 

^ 

4 

fK 

M< 

Fig.  38. —  Table  showing  the  Development  of  the 
Cuneiform  Writing.     (After  Ji^'hi^) 

Babylonians  never  developed  the  system  beyond  the  syllabic 
stage  (sec.  12).  They  employed  a  syllabary  of  between  four  and 
five  hundred  signs.^ 

This  mode  of  writing  was  in  use  among  the  peoples  of  Western 
Asia  from  about  5000  B.C.  down  to  the  first  century  preceding 
our  era.  For  the  first  four  thousand  years  and  more  of  this 
period  it  was  just  such  an  important  factor  in  the  civilization  of 
the  Semitic  world  as  the  Phoenician  alphabet  (sec.  93)  during 
the  last  three  thousand  years  has  been  in  the  civilization  of  the 
Aryan  world.     It  was  the  chief  corner  stone  of  Semitic  culture. 

54.  Books  and  Libraries. — The  writing  material  of  the  Baby- 
lonians was   usually  clay  tablets,   averaging  perhaps    six   inches 

6  The  Persians  at  a  much  later  time  borrowed  the  system  and  developed  it  into 
a  purely  alphabetic  one.     Their  alphabet  consisted  of  thirty-six  characters. 


THE   CONTENTS    OF   THE   LIBRARIES  55 

in  length,  two  in  width,  and  one  in  thickness.  Those  holding 
records  of  special  importance,  after  having  been  once  written 
upon  and  baked,  were  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  clay,  and 
then  the  matter  was  written  in  duplicate  and  the  tablets  again 
baked.  If  the  outer  writing  were  defaced 
by  accident  or  altered  by  design,  the  re- 
moval of  the  outer  coating  would  at  once 
show  the  true  text. 

The  tablets  were  carefully  preserved  in      Fig.  39.  —  Contract 
great  public  libraries.     There  was  one  or  Tablet 

more  of  these  collections  in  each  of  the    The  outer  case  has  been 

1  •    r     •■•  r  T)   1     1       •  T'        ^-  broken  to  show  the  inner 

chief  cities  of  Babylonia.    Erech  was  espe- 

-^  ^  version 

cially  renowned  for  its  great  library,  and 

was  known  as  "  the  City  of  Books."  Often  the  temple  of  the  chief 
deity  was  made  the  depositary  of  the  collection  of  books.  The 
temple  library  found  at  Nippur  contained  over  30,000  tablets. 

55.  The  Decipherment  of  the  Cuneiform  Writing;  the  Contents 
of  the  Libraries. — Just  as  the  key  to  the  Egyptian  writing  was 
found  by  means  of  bilingual  inscriptions,  so  was  the  key  to  the 
cuneiform  script  discovered  by  means  of  trilingual  inscriptions, 
among  which  was  a  very  celebrated  one  cut  by  a  Persian  king 
on  the  so-called  Behistun  Rock  (sec.  98).  Credit  for  the  de- 
cipherment of  the  difficult  writing  is  divided  among  several 
scholars.'^ 

The  tablets  have  been  found  to  cover  the  greatest  variety  of 
subjects.  There  are  mythological  tablets,  which  hold  the  stories 
of  the  Babylonians  respecting  their  gods ;  religious  tablets,  filled 


"  Copies  of  trilingual  inscriptions  —  written  in  Persian,  Susian,  and  Babylonian 
—  were  brought  from  Persepolis  to  Europe  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  clew  to  the  decipherment  of  the  Persian  text  was  found  by  Grotefend  in  1802. 
He  identified  the  names  of  Darius,  Ilystaspes,  and  Xerxes,  the  word  for  "king"  and 
nine  of  the  thirty-nine  signs.  In  1835  Rawlinson  copied  a  longer  inscription  in  these 
same  languages  made  by  Darius  on  the  rock  at  Behistun.  Independently  he  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusions  as  Grotefend.  The  column  of  the  Acliaemenian  inscriptions 
written  in  the  language  of  Susiana  was  deciphered  chiefly  by  Westergaard  and 
Norris.  It  is  the  merit  of  Lowenstern  to  have  taken  the  first  successful  steps  to  the 
decipherment  of  the  Babylonian  text  in  1845  ;  but  our  knowledge  of  the  character 
of  script  and  language  is  chiefly  due  to  Hincks. 


56        THE   EARLY   CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 

with  prayers  and  hymns;  legal  tablets,  containing  laws,  law 
cases,  contracts,  wills,  loans,  and  various  other  matters  o£  a  com- 
mercial nature;  legendary  and  epic  tablets;  and  astronomical, 
geographical,  historical,  and  mathematical  tablets,  —  all  revealing 
a  very  highly  developed  civilization.  We  will  say  just  a  word  of 
what  the  tablets  reveal  respecting  the  religion  and  mythology  of 
the  Babylonians,  and  of  the  state  of  the  sciences  among  them. 

56.  The  Religion. — The  tablets  hold  a  large  religious  litera- 
ture, which  forms  one  of  the  earhest  and  most  instructive  chapters 
in  the  rehgious  history  of  the  race.  At  the  earhest  period  made 
known  to  us  by  the  native  records,  we  find  the  pantheon  to  em- 
brace many  powerful  local  deities  —  the  patron  gods  of  the  different 
cities  —  and  nature  gods ;  but  at  no  period  do  we  find  a  Supreme 
God,  such  as  had  a  place  in  the  Egyptian  religious  system. 
Besides  the  great  gods  there  was  a  vast  multitude  of  lesser  gods. 

The  most  prominent  feature  from  first  to  last  of  the  popular 
religion  was  the  belief  in  spirits,  particularly  in  wicked  spirits,  and 
the  practice  of  magic  rites  and  incantations  to  avert  the  malign 
influence  of  these  demons. 

A  second  most  important  feature  of  the  religion  was  what  is 
known  as  astrology,  or  the  foretelling  of  events  by  the  aspects  of 
the  stars.  This  side  of  the  religious  system  was  most  elaborately 
and  ingeniously  developed  until  the  fame  of  the  Chaldean  astrol- 
ogers was  spread  throughout  the  ancient  world. 

Alongside  these  low  beliefs  and  superstitious  practices  there 
existed,  however,  higher  and  purer  elements.  This  is  best  illus- 
trated by  the  so-called  penitential  psalms,  dating,  some  of  them, 
from  the  second  millennium  B.C.,  which  breathe  a  spirit  like  that 
which  pervades  the  penitential  psalms  of  the  Old  Testament.^ 

8  Here  are  a  few  lines  of  such  a  psalm: 

O  my  god  who  art  angry  with  me,  accept  my  prayer. 


May  my  sins  be  forgiven,  my  transgressions  be  wiped  out. 
May  the  ban  be  loosened,  the  chain  broken, 
May  the  seven  winds  carry  off  my  sighs. 

[May]  flowing  waters  of  the  stream  wash  me  clean. 
Let  me  be  pure  like  the  sheen  of  gold. 

Jastrow,  The  Religion  0/ Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  323. 


IDEAS    OF   THE    FUTURE   LIFE  57 

The  most  instructive  fact  for  us  to  note  respecting  this  old 
Babylonian  religion  is  the  influence  which  it  had  upon  the  culture 
of  later  ages.  For  the  most  part  this  influence  was  of  a  baneful 
character,  for  it  was  chiefly  the  lower  elements  of  the  system, 
magic,  sorcery,  and  astrology,  which  were  absorbed  by  the  bor- 
rowing nations  of  the  West.  Thus  astrology  among  the  later 
Romans  and  the  popular  beliefs  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  regard 
to  evil  spirits,  exorcisms,  charms,  witches,  and  the  devil,  were  in 
large  part  an  inheritance  from  old  Babylonia.  This  wretched  heri- 
tage was  transmitted  from  the  East  to  the  Western  world  at  the 
same  time  that  Christianity  came  in  from  Judea. 

57.  Ideas  of  the  Future  Life.  —  The  beliefs  of  the  Babylonians 
respecting  the  other  world  were  in  strange  contrast  to  those  of  the 
Egyptians.  In  truth  they  gave  but  little  thought  to  the  after  life ; 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  did  not  like  to  keep  the  subject  in 
mind,  for  they  imagined  the  life  after  death  to  be  most  sad  and 
doleful.  The  abode  of  the  dead  (Arallu),  the  "dark  land,'^^tlie 
"land  of  no  return,"  was  a  dusky  region  beneath  the  earth.  Bats 
flitted  about  in  the  dim  light;  dust  was  upon  the  lintels  of  the 
barred  doors ;  the  souls  drowsed  in  their  places ;  their  food  was 
dust  and  mud. 

There  was  no  judgment  of  the  dead  as  among  the  Egyptians. 
There  was  no  distinction,  in  the  case  of  the  great  multitude,^ 
between  the  good  and  the  bad  ;  the  same  lot  awaited  all  who  went 
down  to  death.  What  makes  this  Babylonian  conception  of  the 
nether  world  of  great  historical  interest  and  importance  is  that  it 
was  adopted  by  the  ancient  Hebrews  and  exercised  a  most  potent 
influence  upon  their  rehgious  life  and  thought  (sec.  88). 

58.  The  Place  of  the  Temple  in  the  Life  of  the  People.  —  Religion 
among  the  Babylonians,  as  among  all  the  peoples  of  antiquity,  was 
largely  an  affair  of  the  state.  A  chief  care  and  duty  of  the  king 
was  the  erection  and  repair  of  the  temples  and  shrines  of  the  gods.^° 

9  There  was  a  sort  of  Elysium,  like  that  of  the  Greeks,  for  men  of  great  deeds 
and  great  piety. 

10  A  peculiar  architecttiral  feature  of  the  temple  was  an  immense  zis:s;nrat  or  tower, 
which  consisted  of  a  number  of  stages  or  platforms  raised  one  upon  another  in  the 
form  of  a  great  step  pyramid. 


-( ii  f  i 


58         THE   EARLY   CITY-STATES   OF   BABYLONIA 

The  temples  were  much  more  than  abodes  of  the  gods  and 
places  of  worship.  A  common  adjunct  of  the  sacred  building 
was  a  library  and  school,  which  were  in  charge  of  the  priests  and 
scribes.  The  temples  were  also  banks,  and  their  courts  places 
for  the  transaction  of  all  manner  of  business.  All  kinds  of  con- 
tracts were  drawn  up  by  the  temple  scribes  and  copies  of  the  same 
deposited  for  safe-keeping  in  the  temple  archives.  An  immense 
number  of  these  contract  tablets  have  been  found,  so  that  we 

now  have  probably  a 

better  knowledge  of  the 

-  -  ,  *'7V:^">*c;,_^  commercial  affairs  of  the 

,'U'f*'f  ^J  I  ^''{\      o^d  Babylonians  than  of 

•    '    I  ^  *-^    any   other   people   of 

-  ,^    I  ^      .|    antiquity. 

Many  of  the  temples, 
like    the    churches    and 
Fig.  40.  — Writing  Exercise  Tablets  of   monasteries  of  mediaeval 
A  Child  Europe,  were  richly  en- 

(Foundat  Nippur;  after /////r^^///)  dowed     with     lands     and 

other  property.  Indeed,  the  gods  were  the  largest  landowners  in 
the  state.  The  god  Bel  at  Nippur  seems  to  have  owned  a  great 
part  of  the  city  and  its  lands. 

59.  The  Epic  of  Creation  or  the  Babylonian  Genesis.  —  In  what 
is  called  the  Creation  Epic,  which  has  been  recovered  in  a  frag- 
mentary state  from  the  cuneiform  tablets,  we  have  the  Babylonian 
version  of  the  creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth  by  the  great 
god  Marduk. 

This  account  of  the  creation  has  been  an  important  factor  in 
religious  world  history.  In  its  earlier  form  it  constituted  a  part  of 
the  inheritance  from  Babylonia  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews. 
In  the  hands  of  the  Hebrew  thinkers  and  teachers  the  tradition 
was  remolded  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  it  a  means  of  moral 
and  religious  instruction,  and  thus  was  made  the  starting  point  of 
Hebrew  religious  literature,  a  literature  which  was  destined  to 
become  an  important  part  of  the  religious  heritage  of  the  younger 
Aryan  nations  of  the  West, 


LEGISLATION  :    THE   CODE   OF   HAMMURABI       59 

60.  The  Epic  of  Gilgamesh.  —  Besides  their  legends  concern- 
ing the  beginning  of  things,  the  Babylonians  had  a  large  number 
of  so-called  heroic  and  nature  myths.  The  most  noted  of  these 
form  what  is  known  as  the  Epic  of  Gilgamesh,"  the  Babylonian 
Heracles.  This  is  doubtless  the  oldest  epic  of  the  race.  It  held 
some  such  place  in  Babylonian  literature  and  art  as  the  cycle  of 
myths  and  legends  making  up  the  epic  of  the  Trojan  War  held 
in  the  literature  and  art  of  the 
Greeks.  Echoes  of  it  reached 
the  yT^gean  lands  and  helped  to 
mold  the  Greek  story  of  Her- 
acles (sec.  128). 

61.  Legislation:  the  Code  of 
Hammurabi.  —  In  1901-2  the 
French  excavators  at  Susa,  in 
the  ancient  Elam,  discovered  a 
block  of  stone  upon  which  was 
inscribed  the  code  of  laws  set 
up  by  Hammurabi,  king  of  Baby- 
lon, in  the  third  millennium  B.C. 
(sec.  49).  The  supreme  inter- 
est which  attaches  to  this  code 
springs  not  alone  from  the 
circumstance  that  it  is  the  oldest 
system  of  laws  known  to  us,  but 
from  the  further  circumstance  that  without  doubt  it  exercised 
a  deep  influence  upon  the  later  Hebrew  code. 

The  code  casts  a  strong  side  light  upon  the  Babylonian  life 
of  the  period  when  it  was  compiled,  and  thus  constitutes  one  of 
the  most  valuable  monuments  spared  to  us  from  the  old  Semitic 
world.  It  defines  the  rights  and  duties  of  husband  and  wife, 
master  and  slave,  of  merchants,  gardeners,  tenants,  shepherds,  — 


Fig.  41.  —  Hammurabi  receiving 

THE  Code  from  the  Sun  God 

(After  Harper) 


n  The  epic  is  made  up  of  a  great  variety  of  material.  Some  of  its  incidents  may 
very  likely  have  been  dim  recollections  of  the  heroic  deeds  of  some  greit  historical 
personage.  One  of  the  stories  of  greatest  interest  is  that  of  the  Deluge,  from  which 
the  Bible  story  of  the  Flood  was  derived. 


6o        THE   EARLY  CITY-STATES    OF   BABYLONIA 

of  all  the  classes  which  made  up  the  population  of  the  Baby- 
lonian Empire.  As  in  the  case  of  the  later  Hebrew  code,  the 
principle  of  retaliation  determined  the  penalty  for  injury  done 
another;  it  was  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  a 
limb  for  a  limb. 

The  owner  of  a  vicious  ox  which  had  pushed  or  gored  a  man 
was  required  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  provided  he  knew  the  disposition 
of  the  creature  and  had  not  blunted  its  horns  (see  Ex.  xxi.  28-32). 

The  law  fixes  prices  and  wages,  the  hire  for  boats  and  wagons 
and  of  oxen  for  threshing,  the  fee  of  the  surgeon,  the  wages  of  the 
brickmaker,  of  the  tailor,  of  the  carpenter,  and  of  other  artisans. 

There  are  also  provisions  forbidding  under  severe  penalties  the 
harboring  of  runaway  slaves,  provisions  which  read  strangely  like 
our  ov/n  fugitive  slave  laws  of  a  half  century  ago. 

For  more  than  two  thousand  years  after  its  compilation  this 
code  of  laws  was  in  force  in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empires, 
and  even  after  this  lapse  of  time  it  was  used  as  a  text-book  in  the 
schools  of  the  Mesopotamian  lands.  Probably  no  other  code  save 
the  Mosaic  or  the  Justinian  has  exerted  a  greater  influence  upon 
human  society.  "As  the  oldest  body  of  laws  in  existence," 
says  an  eminent  Assyrian  scholar,  "  it  marks  a  great  epoch  in 
the  world's  history,  and  must  henceforth  form  the  starting  point 
for  the  systematic  study  of  historic  jurisprudence." 

62 .  Sciences :  Astronomy,  the  Calendar,  and  Mathematics.  —  In 
astronomy  the  Babylonians  made  substantial  progress.  Their 
knowledge  of  the  heavens  came  about  both  from  their  interest  as 
astrologers  in  the  stars,  and  from  their  needs  as  navigators  of  the 
Persian  Gulf.  They  early  divided  the  zodiac  into  twelve  signs 
and  named  the  zodiacal  constellations,  a  memorial  of  their  astro- 
nomical attainments  which  will  remain  forever  inscribed  upon  the 
great  circle  of  the  heavens ;  they  foretold  echpses  of  the  sun  and 
moon ;  they  invented  the  sundial  to  tell  off  the  hours  of  sun- 
light and  the  water  clock  to  measure  the  hours  of  darkness ;  they 
divided  the  year  into  twelve  months,  the  day  and  night  into 
hours,  and  the  hours  into  minutes,  and  devised  the  week  of  seven 
days,  ending  with  a  day  of  rest  called  Sabattu.     Through  Israel 


REFERENCES  6l 

this  institution  of  the  week  with  its  sacred  rest  day  became  the 
heritage  of  the  later  world  of  culture.^"^ 

In  the  mathematical  sciences,  also,  the  Babylonians  made  con- 
siderable advance.  A  tablet  has  been  found  which  contains  the 
squares  and  cubes  of  the  numbers  from  one  to  sixty.  The  duo- 
decimal system  in  numbers  was  the  invention  of  the  Babylonians, 
and  it  is  from  them  that  the  system  has  come  to  us. 

The  Babylonians  invented  measures  of  length,  weight,  and 
capacity.  It  was  from  them  that  all  the  peoples  of  antiquity 
derived  their  systems  of  weight  and  measure.  Aside  from  letters, 
these  are  perhaps  the  most  indispensable  agents  in  the  life  of  a 
people  after  they  have  risen  above  the  lowest  levels  of  barbarism. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  — Harper's  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Lit- 
erature (selected  translations),  pp.  408-413,  "  Ishtar's  Descent  to  Hades." 
This  is  one  of  the  choicest  pieces  of  Babylonian  literature.  Sayce's  Early 
Israel  aftd  the  Surrounding  Nations,  pp.  313-319,  "  The  Babylonian  Account 
of  the  Deluge."  This  can  be  found  also  in  Smith's  The  Chaldean  Account 
of  Genesis,  chap.  xvi.  The  Code  of  Hani7nurabi,  in  either  the  Johns  or  the 
Harper  translation.  "  The  Code  of  Hammurabi  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant monuments  of  the  human  race"  (Johns). 

References  (Modern).  —  Maspero,  The  Dawn  of  Civilization,  chaps, 
vii-ix,  and  The  Struggle  of  the  Nations,  chap.  i.  Rawlinson,  Five  Great 
Monarchies,  vol.  i  (first  part).  Rogers,  History  of  Babylonia  ajtd  Assyria, 
vol.  i.  'Ragozij^,  The  Story  of  Chaldea.  Hommel,  The  Civilization  of  the 
East.  GoODSPEED,  A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  (to  pt.  iii). 
HiLPRECHT,  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands  during  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Peters,  Nippur,  2  vols.  Jastrow,  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  attd  Assyria. 
King,  Babylonian  Religion  and  Mythology.  Delitzsch,  Babel  and  Bible. 
Sayce,  Social  Life  among  the  Assyrians  and  Babyloniatis.  Perrot  and 
Chipiez,  a  History  of  Art  in  Chaldcea  and  Assyria,  1  vols.  SCHMIDT,  Out- 
lines of  a  History  of  Babyloftia  and  Assyria,  with  its  carefully  selected  lists 
of  authoritative  works,  will  be  of  special  service  to  the  advanced  student. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Excavations  and  discoveries  in  Baby- 
lonia. 2.  The  cuneiform  writing  and  its  decipherment.  3.  The  Babylo- 
nian libraries.  4.  Babylonian  magic.  5.  The  penitential  psalms.  6.  The 
ancient  canal  system.     7.  Trade  and  commerce. 

12  The  borrowing  by  the  early  Christian  Church  of  the  pagan  festival  celebrating 
the  return  of  the  sun  from  the  winter  solstice  and  the  transforming  of  it  into  a  festival 
(Christmas)  commemorating  the  birth  of  Christ,  furnishes  an  exact  parallel  to  the 
borrowing  and  spiritualizing  of  the  Babylonian  Sabbath  by  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
"  Israel,"  in  the  words  of  Cornill,  "  resembles  in  spiritual  things  the  fabulous  King 
Midas  who  turned  everything  he  touched  into  gold." 


Fig.  42.  —  An  Assyrian  Winged  Bull 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  ASSYRIAN   EMPIRE 

(From  an  unknown  date  to  606  B.C.) 


I.    Political  Historv 

63.  Introduction.  —  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  traced  the 
begmnings  of  civihzation  among  the  early  settlers  of  the  low- 
lands of  the  Euphrates.  Meanwhile,  as  has  already  been  noticed, 
farther  to  the  north,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  were  grow- 
ing into  strength  and  prominence  a  rival  Semitic  people,  —  the 
Assyrians.  Of  the  place  in  world  history  of  the  empire  repre- 
sented by  this  people  we  must  now  try  to  form  some  sort  of  idea. 

The  story  of  Assyria  is  in  the  main  a  story  of  the  Assyrian 
kings.  To  relate  this  story  in  detail  would  involve  endless  repe- 
tition of  the  royal  records  of  military  raids  and  campaigns  in  all 
the  countries  of  Western  Asia.  We  shall  therefore  speak  of  only 
two  or  three  of  those  kings  whose  ability  as  conquerors  or  as 
organizers,  or  whose  munificence  as  builders  and  patrons  of  arts 
and  letters  has  caused  their  names  to  live  among  the  renowned 
personages  of  the  ancient  world. 

62 


TIGLATH-PILESER   III  — SARGON    II  63 

64.  Tiglath-Pileser  III^  (745-727  B.C.).  —  One  of  the  greatest 
of  the  later  kings  was  Tiglath-Pileser  III.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  energy  and  of  undoubted  military  talent.  The  empire  which 
had  been  built  up  by  earlier  kings  having  fallen  into  disorder, 
he  restored  the  Assyrian  power  and  extended  the  limits  of  the 
empire  even  beyond  its  former  boundaries. 

But  what  renders  the  reign  of  this  king  a  landmark  not  only  in 
Assyrian,  but,  we  may  almost  say,  in  universal  history,  is  the  fact 
that  he  was  not  a 'mere  conqueror  like  his  predecessors,  but  a 
political  organizer  of  great  capacity. 

Hitherto  the  empires  that  had  arisen  in  Western  Asia  consisted 
simply  of  tributary  or  vassal  cities  and  states,  each  of  which,  having 
its  own  king,  was  ready  at  the  first  favorable  moment  to  revolt 
against  its  suzerain,  who,  like  a  mediaeval  feudal  king,  was  simply 
a  great  overlord,  "a.  king  of  kings." 

Now  Tiglath-Pileser,  though  not  the  first  to  introduce,  was  the 
first  to  put  into  practice  in  a  large  way,  the  plan  of  reducing  con- 
quered states  to  provinces, —  that  is,  instead  of  allowing  the  princes 
that  he  conquered  to  rule  as  his  vassals,  he  put  in  their  places 
Assyrian  magistrates,  or  viceroys,  upon  whose  loyalty  he  c6tild 
depend. 

*'"  This  system  gave  a  more  compact  and  permanent  character 
to  his  conquests.  It  is  true  he  was  not  able  to  carry  out  his 
system  perfectly ;  but  in  realizing  the  plan  to  the  extent  that  he 
did,  he  laid  the  basis  of  the  power  and  glory  of  the  great  kings 
who  followed  him  upon  the  Assyrian  throne,  and  made  the  later 
Assyrian  Empire,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  prototype  of  the  suc- 
ceeding world  empires  of  Darius,  Alexander,  and  Caesar. 

65.  Sargon  II  (722-705  B.C.). — Sargon  II  was  a  great  con- 
queror and  builder.  In  722  B.C.  he  captured  Samaria,  the  siege 
of  which  had  been  commenced  by  his  predecessor,  and  carried 
away  the  most  influential  classes  of  the  "Ten  Tribes"  of  Israel 
into  captivity  (sec.  84).  The  greater  portion  of  the  captives 
were  scattered  among  the  towns  of  Media,  and  probably  became, 
for  the  most  part,  merged  with  the  population  of  that  region. 

1  Formerly  Tiglath-Pileser  II. 


64 


THE  ASSYRIAN   EMPIRE 


This  transplanting  of  a  conquered  people  was  a  regular  govern- 
mental device  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  It  was  done  not  only  in 
order  that  conspiracy  and  revolt  should  be  rendered  practically 
impossible,  but  also  in  order  that,  with  the  old  ties  of  country 
and  home  thus  severed,  the  rising  generation  might  the  more 
easily  forget  past  wrongs  and  old  traditions  and  customs,  and 
become  blended  with  the  peoples  about  them. 

Sargon  was  a  famous  builder.  Near  the  foot  of  the  Persian 
hills  he  founded  a  large  city,  which  he  named  for  himself ;  and 
there  he  erected  a  royal  residence,  described  in  the  inscriptions  as 

"a  palace  of  incom- 
parable magnifi- 
cence," the  site  of 
which  is  now  pre- 
served by  the  vast 
mounds  of  Khorsa- 
bad  (sec.  69). 
66.  Sennacherib 

(705-681  B.C.). 

':;3  ''^'~ -'^-*~   --  To  Sennacherib, 

Fig.  43.  —  Restoration  of  Sargon's  Palace  at   the  son  of  Sargon, 

Khorsabad.     (From  Place,  Ninive  et  PAssyrie)       we  must  accord  the 

first  place  of  re- 
nown among  all  the  great  names  of  the  Assyrian  Empire.  His 
name,  connected  as  it  is  with  the  history  of  Jerusalem  and  with 
many  of  the  most  wonderful  discoveries  among  the  ruined  palaces 
of  Nineveh,  has  become  as  familiar  as  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar  in 
the  story  of  Babylon. 

The  fullness  of  the  royal  inscriptions  of  this  reign  enables  us  to 
permit  Sennacherib  to  tell  us  in  his  own  words  of  his  great  works 
and  mihtary  expeditions.  Respecting  the  decoration  of  Nineveh,  he 
writes  :  ''  I  raised  again  all  the  edifices  of  Nineveh,  my  royal  city ; 
I  reconstructed  all  its  old  streets,  and  widened  those  that  were  too 
narrow.     I  made  the  whole  town  a  city  shining  like  the  sun." 

Concerning  an  expedition  against  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  he 
says :   "  I  took  forty-six  of  his  strong  fenced  cities ;  and  of  the 


ASSHUR-BANI-PAL 


65 


smaller  towns  which  were  scattered  about  I  took  and  plundered  a 
countless  number.  And  from  these  places  I  captured  and  carried 
off  as  spoil  200,150  people,  old  and  young,  male  and  female, 
together  with  horses  and  mares,  asses  and  camels,  oxen  and  sheep, 
a  countless  multitude.  And  Hezekiah  himself  I  shut  up  in  Jeru- 
salem, his  capital  city,  like  a  bird  in  a  cage,  building  towers  round 
the  city  to  hem  him  in,  and  raising  banks  of  earth  against  the 
gates,  so  as  to  prevent  escape." 

While  Sennacherib  was  besieging  Jerusalem,  the  king  of  Egypt 
appeared  in  the  field  in  the  south  with  aid  for  Hezekiah.  This 
caused  Sennacherib  to  draw  off  his  forces 
from  the  siege  to  meet  the  new  enemy ; 
but  near  the  frontiers  of  Egypt  the 
Assyrian  host,  according  to  the  Hebrew 
account,  was  smitten  by  "  the  angel  of 
the  Lord,"  ^  and  the  king  returned  with 
a  shattered  army  and  without  glory  to 
his  capital  Nineveh. 

Sennacherib  laid  a  heavy  hand  upon 
Babylon,  which  at  this  time  was  the  lead- 
ing city  of  the  lower  country.  That  city 
having  revolted,  Sennacherib  captured 
the  place,  and,  as  his  inscription  declares, 
destroyed  it  ''root  and  branch,"  casting  Fig.  44.  — An  Assyrian 
the  rubbish  into  the  ''  River  of  Babylon."  ^      ^^^^  (•  Sennacherib) 

The  closing  years  of  his  reign  Sennacherib  employed  in  the  dig- 
ging of  canals  and  in  the  erection  of  a  splendid  palace  at  Nineveh. 

67.  Asshur-bani-pal  (668-626?  b.c). —  This  king,  the  Sarda- 
napalus  of  the  Greeks,  is  distinguished  for  his  magnificent  patron- 
age of  art  and  literature.  During  his  reign  Assyria  enjoyed  her 
Golden  Age.  He  caused  a  great  library  to  be  collected  at  Nine- 
veh, in  which  was  gathered  whatever  was  of  greatest  value  in  the 
literature  of  the  southern  land. 

2  This  expression  is  a  Hebraism,  meaning  often  any  physical  cause  of  destruction,  as 
a  plague  or  storm.    In  the  present  case  the  destroying  agency  was  probably  a  pestilence. 

3  The  city  was  rebuilt  by  Sennacherib's  son  and  successor  Esarhaddon  I  (680-668 
B.C.).    This  king  enlarged  the  empire  by  the  conquest  of  Northern  Arabia  and  of  Egypt. 


66  THE  ASSYRIAN   EMPIRE 

But  Asshur-bani-pal  was  also  possessed  of  a  warlike  spirit.  He 
broke  to  pieces,  with  terrible  energy,  in  swift  campaigns,  the 
enemies  of  his  empire.  Elam  especially  was  made  an  awful 
example  of  his  vengeance ;  its  cities  were  leveled,  and  the  whole 
country  was  laid  waste.  All  the  scenes  of  his  sieges  and  battles 
he  caused  to  be  sculptured  on  the  walls  of  his  palace  at  Nineveh. 
These  pictured  panels  are  now  in  the  British  Museum.  They  are 
a  perfect  Iliad  in  stone. 

68.  The  Fall  of  Nineveh  (606  b.c). — Saracus,  who  came  to 
the  throne  towards  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  b.c,  was  the  last 
of  the  long  line  of  Assyrian  kings.  For  nearly  or  quite  six  centuries 
the  Ninevite  kings  had  now  lorded  it  over  the  East.  There  was 
scarcely  a  state  in  all  Western  Asia  that  during  this  time  had  not, 
in  the  language  of  the  royal  inscriptions,  "  borne  the  heavy  yoke 
of  their  lordship  "  ;  scarcely  a  people  that  had  not  suffered  their 
cruel  punishments,  or  tasted  the  bitterness  of  enforced  exile. 

But  now  swift  misfortunes  were  bearing  down  upon  the  oppressor 
from  every  quarter.  Egypt  revolted  and  tore  Syria  away  from  the 
empire  ;  from  the  mountain  defiles  on  the  east  issued  the  armies  of 
the  recent-grown  empire  of  the  Aryan  Medes,  led  by  the  renowned 
Cyaxares ;  from  the  southern  lowlands,  anxious  to  aid  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  hated  oppressor,  the  Babylonians  joined  the  Medes 
as  allies,  and  together  they  laid  close  siege  to  Nineveh. 

The  city  was  finally  taken  and  sacked,  and  dominion  passed 
away  forever  from  the  proud  capital  (606  b.c).  Two  hundred 
years  later,  when  Xenophon  with  his  Ten  Thousand  Greeks,  in  his 
memorable  retreat  (sec.  259),  passed  the  spot,  the  once  great  city 
was  a  crumbling  mass  of  ruins,  of  which  he  could  not  even  learn 
the  name. 


II.  The  Civilization 

69.  Assyrian  Excavations  and  Discoveries.  —  In  Assyria  there 
are  many  mounds  like  those  in  Babylonia.  These  mark  the  sites 
of  the  old  Assyrian  cities ;  for  though  stone  in  this  upper  country 
is  abundant,  the  Assyrians,  being  colonists  from  the  lower  country, 


ASSYRIAN    PALACES  AND  TEMPLES 


67 


continued  to  use  in  the  main  sun-dried  bricks  in  the  construction 
of  their  buildings.*  Hence  in  their  decay  the  Assyrian  edifices 
have  left  just  such  earth-mounds  as  those  which  form  the  tombs 
of  the  old  Babylonian  cities  and  temples. 

In  1 843-1 844  M.  Botta,  the  French  consul  at  Mosul  on  the 
Tigris,  excavated  the  mound  at  Khorsabad,  and  astonished  the 
world  with  most  wonderful  specimens  of  Assyrian  art  from 
the  palace  of  Sargon  II.     The  sculptured  and  lettered  slabs  were 


Fig.  45.  —  Restoration  of  a  Court  in  Sargon's  Palace  at 
Khorsabad.     (After  Fergusson) 

removed  to  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  in  Paris.  In  1845-185 1 
Layard  disentombed  the  palace  of  Sennacherib  and  those  of  other 
kings  at  Nineveh  and  Calah,  and  enriched  the  British  Museum 
with  the  treasures  of  his  search. 

70.  Assyrian  Palaces  and  Temples.  —  The  Assyrian  kings  paid 
more  attention  to  the  royal  residence  than  to  the  temples  of  the 
gods,  though  they  were  by  no  means  neglectful  of  the  latter. 
In  imitation  of  the  Babylonian  sovereigns  they  built  their  palaces 

*  Stone  when  employed  was  iTsed  mainly  for  decorative  purposes  and  for  the 
foundation  of  walls. 


68 


THE   ASSYRIAN   EMPIRE 


and  temples  upon  artificial  terraces  or  platforms.  The  great  palace 
mound  at  Nineveh  covers  an  area  of  about  one  hundred  acres, 
and  is  sixty  or  seventy  feet  in  height.     Upon  this  mound  stood 

several  of  the  most  splendid  palaces 
of  the  Ninevite  kings. 

The  group  of  buildings  constitut- 
ing the  royal  residence  was  often  of 
enormous  extent ;  the  various  courts, 
halls,  and  chambers  of  the  palace  of 
Sennacherib,  which  surmounted  the 
great  platform  at  Nineveh,  covered 
an  area  of  twenty  acres,  while  that  of 
Sargon  at  Khorsabad  was  spread  over  about  twenty-five  acres. 
The  palaces  were  one-storied.  The  rooms  and  galleries  were 
plastered  with  stucco,  paneled  with  precious  woods,  or  lined  with 
enameled  bricks.  The  main  halls,  however,  and  the  great  open 
courts  were  faced  with  slabs  of  alabaster,  covered  with  sculptures 


Fig.  46.  —  Emblem  of 
Assyrian  Deity 


Mmi.,iAhM\m  U#;^^nu  rn  luupijiru 


Fig.  47.  —  Transport  OF  a  Winged  Bull.     (From  Layard's 
Monu7Jie7its  of  Nineveh) 

and  inscriptions,  the  illustrated  narrative  of  the  wars  and  the 
labors  of  the  monarch.  There  were  two  miles  of  such  sculptured 
paneling  at  Kouyunjik.  At  the  portals,  to  guard  the  approach, 
were  stationed  the  colossal  human-headed  bulls. 

71.  The  Royal  Library  at  Nineveh. — Within  the  palace  of 
Asshur-bani-pal  at  Nineveh  was  discovered  what  is  known  as  the 
Royal  Library,  from  which  over   twenty  thousand   tablets  were 


CRUELTY   OF   THE   ASSYRIANS 


69 


taken.  We  learn  from  the  inscriptions  that  a  Hbrarian  had  charge 
of  the  collection.  Catalogues  of  the  books  have  been  found, 
made  out  on  clay  tablets.  The  library  was  open  to  the  public, 
for  an  inscription  says,  "  I  [Asshur-bani-pal]  wrote  upon  the  tab- 
lets ;  I  placed  them  in  my  palace  for  the  instruction  of  my  people." 

The  greater  part  of  the  tablets  were  copies  of  older  Babylonian 
works ;  for  the  hterature  of  the  Assyrians,  as  well  as  their  arts 
and  sciences,  was  borrowed  almost  in  a  body  from  the  Babylo- 
nians.^ All  the  old  libraries  of  the  lower  country  were  ransacked 
by  the  agents  of  Asshur-bani-pal,  and  copies  of  "  the  old  masters  " 
made  for  the  new  collection  at  Nineveh.  In  this  way  was  pre- 
served in  duplicate  a  considerable  portion  of  the  early  Babylonian 
literature.  The  Hterary  treasures  secured  from  the  Ninevite 
library  are  of  greater  interest  and  value  to  us  than  those  yielded 
by  any  other  Assyrian-Babylonian  collection  thus  far  unearthed. 

72.  Cruelty  of  the  Assyrians. — The  Assyrians  have  been 
called  the  "  Romans  of  Asia."     They  were  a  proud,  warhke,  and 


_1L 


Fig.  48.  —  Assyrians  flaying  Prisoners  Alive.     (From  a  bas-relief) 

cruel  race.  Although  possessing  genuine  religious  feeling,  still  the 
Assyrian  monarchs  often  displayed  in  their  treatment  of  prisoners 
the  disposition  of  savages.  The  sculptured  marbles  taken  from  the 
palaces  exhibit  the  cruel  tortures  inflicted  upon  prisoners ;  kings 
are  being  led  before  their  conqueror  with  hooks  thrust  through 
their  lips  ;  other  prisoners  are   being   flayed  ahve ;    the  eyes  of 


5  The  relations  of  Assyria  to  Babylonian  civilization  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
relations  of  Rome  (also  a  military  empire)  to  Greek  culture. 


;o 


THE   ASSYRIAN   EMPIRE 


some  are  being  bored  out  with  the  point  of  a  spear ;  and  still 
others  are  having  their  tongues  torn  out. 

One  royal  inscription,  which  is  a  fair  specimen  of  many  others, 
runs  as  follows  :  "  Their  men,  young  and  old,  I  took  prisoners. 
Of  some  I  cut  off  the  feet  and  hands ;  of  others  I  cut  off  the 
noses,  ears,  and  lips ;  of  the  young  men's  ears  I  made  a  heap  ; 
of  the  old  men's  heads  I  built  a  tower.  I  exposed  their  heads  as 
a  trophy  in  front  of  their  city.  The  male  children  and  the  female 
children  I  burned  in  the  flames." 

73.  Royal  Sports. —  The  Assyrian  king  gloried  in  being,  like  the 
great  Nimrod,  "  a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord."  In  his  inscrip- 
tions the  wild  beasts  he  has  slain  are  as  carefully  enumerated  as 


Fig.  49.  —  Lion   Hunt.     (From  Nineveh) 

the  cities  he  has  captured.  The  monuments  are  covered  with 
sculptures  that  represent  the  king  engaged  in  the  favorite  royal 
sport.  We  see  him  slaying  lions,  bulls,  and  boars,  as  well  as  less 
dangerous  animals  of  the  chase,  with  which  the  uncultivated  tracts 
of  the  country  appear  to  have  abounded. 

74.  Services  rendered  Civilization  by  Assyria.  —  Assyria  did  a 
work  like  that  done  by  Rome  at  a  later  time.  Just  as  Rome 
welded  all  the  peoples  of  the  Mediterranean  world  into  a  great 
empire,  and  then  throughout  her  vast  domains  scattered  the  seeds 
of  the  civilization  which  she  had  borrowed  from  vanquished  Greece, 
so  did  Assyria  weld  into  a  great  empire  the  innumerable  petty 
warring  states  and  tribes  of  Western  Asia,  and  then  throughout 
her  extended  dominions  spread  the  civilization  which  she  had 
borrowed  in  a  body  from  the  conquered  Babylonians. 


REFERENCES 


71 


In  thus  spreading  abroad  the  best  civilization  of  the  Semitic 
world,  Assyria  caused  it  to  come  into  contact  with  the  as  yet 
undeveloped  culture  of  the  Aryan-Greek  world  of  the  West.  "It 
was  from  the  East,"  declares  Rawlinson,  "  that  Greece  derived 
her  architecture,  her  sculpture,  her  science,  her  philosophy,  her 
mathematical  knowledge,  —  in  a  word,  her  intellectual  life." 

There  is  doubtless  exaggeration  in  this  statement,  yet  it  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  the  civilization  of  Greece,  and  through  her  the 
civilization  of  all  the  Western  world,  was  greatly  enriched  by  gifts, 
received  through  the  agency  of  Assyria,  from  the  early  culture  of 
the  Mesopotamian  lands. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —Records  of  the  Past  (New  Series),  vol.  v, 
pp.  120-128,  "The  Nimrud  Inscription  of  Tiglath-Pileser  III,"  on  miUtary 
and  building  operations ;  and  vol.  iv,  pp.  38-52,  "  Inscription  on  the  Obe- 
lisk of  Shalmaneser  II,"  shows  the  harshness  and  cruelty  of  Assyrian  war- 
fare. This  inscription,  along  with  many  other  selected  translations,  can  also 
be  found  in  Harper's  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature. 

References  (Modern).  —  Maspero,  The  Struggle  of  the  Nations,  chap,  vi, 
and  The  Passing  of  the  Empires,  chaps,  i-v.  Rawlinson,  Five  Great  Mon- 
archies, vol.  i  (last  part).  Goodspeed,  A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians,  pt.  iii.  Layard,  Nineveh  and  its  Remains.  Perrot  and  Chip- 
lEZ,  A  History  of  Art  in  Chaldcea  and  Assyria,  2  vols.  Rogers,  A  History 
of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  vol.  ii,  pp.  1-295.    Ragozin,  The  Story  of  Assyria. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Layard's  excavations  and  discoveries. 
2.  Sargon's  palace  at  Khorsabad.  3.  The  relation  of  Assyrian  civiliza- 
tion to  the  Babylonian.  4.  Assyrian  animal  sculpture.  5.  The  Assyrian 
government. 


Fig.  50.  —  A  Wounded  Lioness 
(From  an  Assyrian  sculpture) 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE  CHALDEAN  EMPIRE 

(625-538    B.C.) 

75.  Babylon  becomes  again  a  World  Power.  —  Nabopolassar 
(625-605  B.C.)  was  the  founder  of  what  is  known  as  the  Chaldean 
Empire.-^  At  first  a  vassal  king,  when  troubles  and  misfortunes 
began  to  thicken  about  the  Assyrian  court,  he  revolted  and  became 
independent.  Later  he  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  Median 
king  against  his  former  suzerain  (sec.  68).  Through  the  overthrow 
of  Nineveh  and  the  break-up  of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  the  Baby- 
lonian kingdom  received  large  accessions  of  territory.  For  a  short 
time  thereafter  Babylon  filled  a  great  place  in  history. 

76.  Nebuchadnezzar  II  (605-561  B.C.).  —  Nabopolassar  was  fol- 
lowed by  his  renowned  son  Nebuchadnezzar,  whose  gigantic  archi- 
tectural works  rendered  Babylon  the  wonder  of  the  ancient  world. 

Jerusalem,  having  repeatedly  revolted,  was  finally  taken  and 
sacked  (sec.  85).  The  temple  was  stripped  of  its  sacred  vessels 
of  silver  and  gold,  which  were  carried  away  to  Babylon,  and  the 
temple  itself  was  given  to  the  flames ;  a  part  of  the  people  were 
also  carried  away  into  the  ''Great  Captivity"  (586  B.C.). 

With  Jerusalem  subdued,  Nebuchadnezzar  pushed  with  all  his 
forces  the  siege  of  the  Phoenician  city  of  Tyre,  whose  investment 
had  been  commenced  several  years  before.  In  striking  language 
the  prophet  Ezekiel  (xxix.  18)  describes  the  length  and  hard- 
ness of  the  siege  :  "  Every  head  was  made  bald,  and  every  shoulder 
was  peeled."  After  thirteen  years  Nebuchadnezzar  was  appar- 
ently forced  to  raise  the  siege. 

1  Called  also  the  New  Babylonian  Empire.  Nabopolassar  represented  the  Chal- 
deans (Kaldu),  a  people  whose  home  was  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  who  had  carried 
on  a  long  intermittent  struggle  with  the  rulers  of  Babylon  for  the  possession  of 
Babylonia, 

72 


THE   FALL  OF   BABYLON  73 

Nebuchadnezzar  sought  to  rival  even  the  Pharaohs  in  the  exe- 
cution of  immense  works  requiring  a  vast  expenditure  of  human 
labor.  Among  his  works  were  the  Great  Palace  in  the  royal 
quarter  of  the  city,  the  celebrated  Hanging  Gardens,^  the  quays 
along  the  Euphrates,  and  the  walls  of  the  city.  The  gardens 
and  the  walls  were  reckoned  by  the  ancients  among  the  wonders 
of  the  world. 

Especially  zealous  was  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  erection  and 
restoration  of  the  shrines  of  the  gods.  "  Like  dear  life,"  runs 
one  of  his  inscriptions,  "  love  I  the  building  of  their  lodging- 
places."  He  dwells  with  fondness  on  all  the  details  of  the  work, 
and  tells  how  —  beginning  each  day  his  labors  with  prayer  — 
he  ornamented  the  panelings  of  the  shrines  with  precious  stones, 
roofed  them  with  huge  beams  of  cedar  overlaid  with  gold  and 
silver,  and  decorated  the  gates  with  plates  of  bronze,  making  the 
sacred  abodes  as  "bright  as  the  stars  of  heaven."^ 

77.  The  Fall  of  Babylon  (538  B.C.).  —  The  glory  of  the  New 
Babylonian  Empire  passed  away  with  Nebuchadnezzar. 

To  the  east  of  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  there 
had  been  growing  up  an  Aryan  kingdom,  the  Medo-Persian,  which 
at  the  time  now  reached  by  us  had  become  a  great  imperial 
power.  At  the  head  of  this  new  empire  was  Cyrus,  a  strong,  ener- 
getic, and  ambitious  sovereign  (sec.  96).  Coming  into  colHsion 
with  the  Babylonian  king  Nabonidus  he  defeated  his  army  in 
the   open  field,  and  the  gates  of  the   strongly  fortified   capital 

2  The  Hanging  Gardens  were  constructed  by  Nebuchadnezzar  to  please  his  wife 
Amytis,  who,  tired  of  the  monotony  of  the  Babylonian  plains,  longed  for  the  moun- 
tain scenery  of  her  native  Media.  The  gardens  were  probably  built  somewhat  in  the 
form  of  the  tower  temples,  the  successive  stages  being  covered  with  earth  and  beau- 
tified with  rare  plants  and  trees,  so  as  to  simulate  the  appearance  of  a  mountain 
rising  in  cultivated  terraces  towards  the  sky. 

3  See  the  Inscription  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  Records  ofiJie  Past  (New  Series),  vol,  iii. 
The  spirit  of  the  builder  is  revealed  in  the  following  lines :  "  To  the  rebuilding  of 
Esagila  my  heart  incited  me  ;  I  held  it  constantly  in  mind.  I  selected  the  best  of  my 
cedar  trees,  which  I  had  brought  from  Mount  Lebanon,  the  snow-capped  forests,  for 
the  roofing  of  E-kua,  the  shrine  of  his  lordship,  and  I  decorated  with  brilliant  gold 
the  inner  sides  of  the  mighty  cedar  trunks,  used  in  the  roofing  of  E-kua.  I  adorned  the 
under  side  of  the  roof  of  cedar  with  gold  and  precious  stones.  Concerning  the  rebuild- 
ing of  Esagila,  I  prayed  every  morning  to  the  king  of  the  gods,  the  lord  of  lords." 


74  THE   CHALDEAN    EMPIRE 

Babylon   were   without  further   resistance    thrown    open    to    the 
Persians*  (538  B.C.). 

With  the  fall  of  Babylon  the  scepter  of  dominion,  borne  for  so 
many  millenniums  by  Semitic  princes,  was  given  into  the  hands 
of  the  Aryan  peoples,  who  were  destined  from  this  time  forward 
to  shape  the  main  course  of  events  ^  and  control  the  affairs  of 
civilization. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Harper's  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
Literature^  pp.  134-143,  "The  East  India  House  Inscription  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar II,"  a  record  of  the  king's  great  building  operations ;  and 
pp.  171-174,  "The  Cylinder  of  Cyrus,"  an  account  of  the  taking  of 
Babylon. 

References  (Modern).  —  Maspero,  The  Passing  of  the  E?npires,  chap,  v, 
and  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt  and  Assyria^  chaps,  xi-xx.  Rogers,  A  Lfis- 
tory  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  vol.  ii,  pp.  297-381.  Goodspeed,  A  Llistory 
of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  pt.  iv.  Sayce,  The  Religions  of 
Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  pt.  ii. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  — i.  Nebuchadnezzar  as  a  builder.  2.  The 
walls  of  Babylon.     3.  Cylinder  seals. 

4  The  device  of  turning  the  Euphrates,  which  Herodotus  makes  an  incident  of  the 
siege,  was  not  resorted  to  by  Cyrus ;  but  it  seems  that  a  little  later  (in  521-519  B.C.), 
the  city,  having  revolted,  was  actually  taken  in  this  way  by  the  Persian  king  Darius. 
Herodotus  confused  the  two  events. 

5  In  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  there  was  a  revival  of 
the  Semitic  power  throughout  the  Orient  by  the  Arabs,  but  the  ascendancy  of  this 
race  was  of  brief  duration. 


A  Cylinder  Seal^ 
"Every  man  carries  a  seal"  (Herodotus) 

5  For  the  impression  of  this  seal,  see  p.  50. 


CHAPTER   VII 
THE  HEBREWS 

78.  The  Patriarchal  Age.  —  The  history  of  the  Hebrews,  as 
narrated  in  their  sacred  books,  begins  with  the  departure  of  the 
patriarch  Abraham  out  of  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees."  ^  The  stories 
of  Abraham  and  his  nephew  Lot,  of  Isaac  and  his  sons  Jacob  and 
Esau,  of  the  sojourn  and  the  oppression  of  the  descendants  of 
Jacob  in  Egypt,  of  the  Exodus  under  the  leadership  of  the  great 
legislator  Moses,  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan  by  his  successor 
Joshua,  and  the  apportionment  of  the  land  among  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel,  — all  these  wonderful  stories  are  told  in  the  Old 
Hebrew  Scriptures  with  a  charm  and  simplicity  that  have  made 
them  the  familiar  possession  of  childhood. 

79.  The  Age  of  the  Judges  (ending  about  1050  B.C.).  —  A  long 
period  of  anarchy  and  dissension  followed  the  conquest  and 
settlement  of  Canaan  by  the  Hebrews.  "  There  was  no  king 
in  Israel :  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes." 
During  this  time  there  arose  a  line  of  national  heroes,  such  as 
Gideon,  Jephthah,  and  Samson,  whose  deeds  of  valor  and  daring, 
and  the  timely  deliverance  they  wrought  for  the  tribes  of  Israel 
from  their  foes,  caused  their  names  to  be  handed  down  with 
grateful  remembrance  to  following  ages. 

These  popular  leaders  were  called  Judges  because  they  usually 
exercised  judicial  functions,  acting  as  arbiters  between  the  differ- 
ent tribes,  as  well  as  between  man  and  man.  The  last  of  the 
Judges  was  Samuel. 

80.  Founding  of  the  Hebrew  Monarchy  (about  1050  b.c).  — 
During  the  period  of  the  Judges  the  tribes  of  Israel  were  united 
by  no  central  government.     But  the  common  dangers  to  which 

1  Ur  was  near  Nippur. 
75 


'je  THE   HEBREWS 

they  were  exposed  from  the  attacks  of  the  half-subdued  Canaan- 
itish  tribes,  and  the  example  of  the  nations  about  them,  led  the 
people  finally  to  begin  to  think  of  the  advantages  of  union  and  of 
kingly  rule. 

The  situation  of  things  throughout  the  world  at  just  this  time 
favored  the  rise  of  a  Hebrew  kingdom.  All  the  great  states  of 
the  Orient,  —  Egypt,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  and  the  Hittite  Empire, 
—  exhausted  by  their  struggles  with  one  another  for  supremacy 
or  undermined  by  other  causes,  were  suffering  a  temporary 
decline,  and  the  way  was  clear  for  the  advance  into  the  arena  of 
world  politics  of  another  competitor  for  imperial  dominion. 

The  hitherto  loose  confederation  was  changed  into  a  kingdom, 
and  Saul  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin  was  made  king  of  the  new 
monarchy  (about  1050  B.C.). 

81.  The  Reign  of  David  (about  1025-993  e.g.). — Upon  the 
death  of  Saul,  David,  son  of  Jesse,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  assumed 
the  scepter.  After  reducing  to  obedience  all  the  tribes,  David  set 
about  enlarging  his  dominions.  He  built  up  a  real  empire  and 
waged  wars  of  extermination  against  the  troublesome  tribes  of 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom. 

David  was  a  poet  as  well  as  a  warrior.  His  lament  over  Saul 
and  Jonathan^  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  noblest  specimens  of  ele- 
giac poetry  that  has  come  down  from  Hebrew  antiquity.  Such 
was  his  fame  that  the  authorship  of  a  large  number  of  hymns 
written  in  a  later  age  was  ascribed  to  him. 

82.  The  Reign  of  Solomon  (about  993-953  b.c).  David  was 
followed  by  his  son  Solomon.  The  son  did  not  possess  the 
father's  talent  for  military  affairs,  but  was  a  liberal  patron  of  art, 
commerce,  and  learning.  He  erected  with  the  utmost  magnifi- 
cence of  adornment  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  planned  by  his 
father  David.  King  Hiram  of  Tyre,  who  was  a  close  friend  of 
the  Hebrew  monarch,  aided  him  in  this  undertaking  by  supply- 
ing him  with  the  celebrated  cedar  of  Lebanon,  and  with  Tyrian 
architects,  the  most  skilled  workmen  at  that  time  in  the  world. 
The  dedication  ceremonies  upon  the  completion  of  the  building 

2  2  Samuel,  i.  17-27, 


THE    DIVISION    OF   THE    KINGDOM 


77 


were  most  impressive.     Thenceforth  this  temple  was  the  center 
of  the  Jewish  worship  and  of  the  national  life. 

For  the  purpose  of  extending  his  commerce  Solomon  built 
fleets  upon,  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea.  The  most 
remote  regions  of  Asia  and  Africa  were  visited  by  his  ships,  and 
their  rich  and  wonderful  products  made  to  contribute  to  the 
wealth  and  glory  of  his  kingdom.  He  maintained  a  magnificent 
court,  and  has  hved  in  tradition  as  the  wisest  king  of  the  East. 


('k^'M^M 


Fig.  51.  —  The  Place  of  Wailing 

Showing  some  of  the  foundation  stones  of  Solomon's 
Temple  at  Jerusalem 

83.  The  Division  of  the  Kingdom  (about  953  B.C.).  —  The 
reign  of  Solomon  was  brilliant,  yet  disastrous  in  the  end  to  the 
Hebrew  monarchy.  In  order  to  carry  on  his  vast  undertakings 
he  had  laid  oppressive  taxes  upon  his  people.  When  Rehoboam, 
his  son,  succeeded  to  his  father's  place,  the  people  entreated  him 
to  lighten  the  taxes  that  were  making  their  very  Hves  a  burden. 
He  replied  to  the  petition  with  haste  and  insolence  :  "  My  father," 
said  he,  ''  chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you  with 
scorpions." 

Immediately  all  the  tribes,  save  Judah  and  Benjamin,  rose  in 
revolt,  and  succeeded  in  setting  up  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem  a 
rival  kingdom,  with  Jeroboam  as  its   first  king.     This  northern 


78  THE   HEBREWS 

state,  of  which  Samaria  afterwards  became  the  capital,  was  known 
as  the  Kingdom  of  Israel ;  the  southern,  of  which  Jerusalem 
remained  the  capital,  was  called  the  Kingdom  of  Judah. 

Thus  was  torn  in  twain  the  empire  of  David  and  Solomon. 
United,  the  tribes  might  have  maintained  an  empire  capable  of 
offering  successful  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of  the  power- 
ful and  ambitious  monarchs  about  them.  But  now  the  land 
became  an  easy  prey  to  the  spoiler.  It  was  henceforth  the  path- 
way of  the  conquering  armies  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates. 
Between  the  powerful  monarchies  of  these  regions,  as  between 
an  upper  and  nether  millstone,  the  httle  kingdoms  were  destined, 
one  after  the  other,  to  be  ground  to  pieces. 

84.  The  Kingdom  of  Israel  (953  ?  -722  b.c).  — The  kingdom  of 
the  Ten  Tribes  maintained  its  existence  for  about  two  hundred 
years.  Many  passages  of  its  history  are  recitals  of  the  strug- 
gles between  the  worship  of  the  national  god  Yahweh  (Jehovah) 
and  the  idolatrous  service  of  the  gods  of  the  surrounding  nations. 
The  cause  of  Yahweh  was  boldly  espoused  by  a  line  of  remarkable 
prophets,  among  whom  Elijah  and  Ehsha  in  the  ninth  century, 
and  Amos  and  Hosea  in  the  eighth,  stand  preeminent. 

The  little  kingdom  was  at  last  overwhelmed  by  the  Assyrian 
power.  This  happened  722  B.C.,  when  Samaria,  as  we  have 
already  narrated  in  the  history  of  Assyria  (sec.  65),  was  captured 
by  Sargon,  king  of  Nineveh,  and  the  flower  of  the  people  were 
carried  away  into  captivity  beyond  the  Mesopotamian  rivers. 

The  gaps  made  in  the  population  of  Samaria  by  this  deporta- 
tion of  its  best  inhabitants  were  filled  with  other  subjects  or 
captives  of  the  Assyrian  king.  The  descendants  of  these,  mingled 
with  the  Israelites  that  were  still  left  in  the  country,  formed  the 
Samaritans  of  the  time  of  Christ. 

85.  The  Kingdom  of  Judah  (953?-586  b.c.).  — This  little 
kingdom,  torn  by  internal  religious  dissensions,  and  often  on  the 
very  verge  of  ruin  from  Egyptian  or  Assyrian  armies,  maintained 
an  independent  existence  for  over  three  centuries.  But  upon 
the  extension  of  the  power  of  Babylon  to  the  west,  Jerusalem  was 
forced  to  acknowledge  the  suzerainty  of  the  Babylonian  kings. 


HEBREW   LITERATURE 


79 


The  kingdom  at  last  shared  the  fate  of  its  northern  rival. 
Nebuchadnezzar,  the  powerful  king  of  Babylon,  in  revenge  for 
an  uprising  of  the  Jews,  besieged  and  captured  Jerusalem  and 
carried  away  a  large  part  of  the  people  into  captivity  at  Babylon 
(sec.  76).  This  event  virtually  ended  the  separate  political  life 
of  the  Hebrew  race  (586  B.C.).  Henceforth  Judea  constituted 
simply  a  province  of  the  empires  —  Babylonian,  Persian,  Mace- 
donian, and  Roman  —  which  successively  held  sway  over  the 
regions  of  Western  Asia,  with,  however,  just  one  flicker  of 
national  life  under  the  Maccabees,  during  a  part  of  the  two 
centuries  just  preceding  the  birth  of  Christ. 

It  only  remains  to  mention  those  succeeding  events  which 
belong  rather  to  the  story  of  the  Jews  as  a  people  than  as  a 
nation.  Upon  the  capture  of  Babylon  by  the  Persian  king  Cyrus 
(sec.  77),  that  monarch  permitted  the  exiles  to  return  to  Jeru- 
salem and  restore  their  temple.  Jerusalem  thus  became  again 
the  center  of  the  old  Hebrew  worship,  and,  although  shorn  of 
national  glory,  continued  to  be  the  sacred  center  of  the  ancient 
faith  till  the  second  generation  after  Christ.  Then,  in  chastise- 
ment for  repeated  revolts,  the  city  was  laid  in  ruiits  by  the 
Romans ;  while  vast  numbers  of  the  inhabitants  were  slain,  or 
perished  by  famine,  and  the  remnant  were  driven  into  exile  to 
different  lands. 

Thus  by  a  series  of  unparalleled  calamities  were  the  descendants 
of  Abraham  "  sifted  among  all  nations  ";  but  to  this  day  they  chng 
with  a  marked  devotion  and  loyalty  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 

86.  Hebrew  Literature.  — The  literature  of  the  Hebrews  is  a  reli- 
gious one;  for  literature  with  them  was  in  the  main  merely  a  means 
of  inculcating  rehgious  truth  or  awakening  devotional  feeling. 

This  unique  literature  is  contained  in  sacred  books  known  as 
the  Old  or  Hebrew  Testament,  In  these  ancient  writings,  patri- 
archal traditions,  histories,  dramas,  poems,  prophecies,  and  per- 
sonal narratives  blend  in  a  wonderful  mosaic,  which  pictures  with 
vivid  and  grand  effect  the  migrations,  the  deliverances,  the  calami- 
ties, —  all  the  events  and  religious  experiences  making  up  the 
checkered  life  of  the  people  of  Israel. 


8o  THE   HEBREWS 

Out  of  the  Old  arose  the  New  Testamefit,  which  we  should 
think  of  as  a  part  of  Hebrew  hterature ;  for  although  written  in 
the  Greek  language  and  long  after  the  close  of  the  political  life 
of  the  Jewish  nation,  still  it  is  essentially  Hebrew  in  thought  and 
doctrine,  and  the  supplement  and  crown  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

Besides  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  called  collectively,  by  way  of  pre- 
eminence, the  Bible  (the  Book),  it  remains  to  mention  especially 
the  Apocrypha,  embracing  a  number  of  books  that  were  composed 
after  the  decline  of  the  prophetic  spirit,  and  which  show  traces,  as 
indeed  do  several  of  the  later  books  of  the  Bible,  of  the  influence 
of  Persian  and  of  Greek  thought.  These  books  are  generally 
regarded  by  the  Jews  and  Protestants  as  uncanonical,  but  in  the 
main  are  considered  by  the  Catholics  as  possessing  equal  authority 
with  the  other  books  of  the  Bible. 

Neither  must  we  fail  to  mention  the  Talmud,  a  collection  of 
Hebrew  customs  and  traditions,  with  the  comments  thereupon 
of  the  rabbis,  a  work  held  by  most  Jews  next  in  sacredness  to 
the  Holy  Book ;  the  writings  of  Philo,  an  illustrious  Alexandrian 
philosopher  (born  about  25  B.C.);  and  the  Antiquities  of  the  Jews 
and  the  Jewish  War  by  the  historian  Josephus,  who  lived  and 
wrote  at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans, 
that  is,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century  after  Christ. 

87.  Hebrew  Religion  and  Morality.  —  The  ancient  Hebrews 
made  httle  or  no  contribution  to  science.  They  produced  no  new 
order  of  architecture ;  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  was  ''  little  more 
than  a  reproduction  of  a  Babylonian  sanctuary."  In  sculpture 
they  did  nothing;  their  religion  forbade  their  making  "graven 
images."  Their  mission  was  to  work  out  the  idea  of  one  sole  and 
just  God,  and  to  teach  men  that  what  God  requires  of  them  is 
that  they  shall  do  justice  and  practice  righteousness. 

It  was  only  gradually  that  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  God  dawned 
upon  the  teachers  of  Israel.  In  the  beginning  the  Hebrew 
Yahweh  was  a  tribal  god,  and  in  all  essential  respects  like  the 
gods  of  the  other  nations. 

But  in  one  thing  the  Hebrews  from  their  first  appearance  in 
history  differed  from  their  neighbors.     They  were  monolatrists. 


IDEAS   OF   THE   FUTURE   LIFE  8l 

that  is,  ivorshipers  of  one  god  although  behevers  in  many  gods. 
They  regarded  the  gods  of  the  other  nations  as  real  gods,  but 
Yahweh  was  a  jealous  god  and  his  people  must  not  pay  homage  or 
offer  sacrifice  to  any  other.  In  holding  this  belief  the  Hebrews 
were  from  the  first  a  peculiar  people.  The  idea  was  the  germ  of 
a  vast  religious  development. 

Gradually  this  early  form  of  the  Hebrew  religion  verged  towards 
monotheism,  that  is,  the  doctrine  that  there  is  one  sole  God  beside 
whom  there  is  no  other.  At  the  same  time  there  came  into  the 
loftier  souls  of  the  nation  the  true  and  worthier  conception  of  God 
as  holy  and  just  and  compassionate  and  loving,  —  as  the  Universal 
Father  whose  care  is  over  not  one  people  alone  but  over  all  peoples 
and  all  races. 

This  history-making  idea  of  God  and  his  character,  the  most 
important  of  all  the  products  of  the  life  and  thought  of  antiquity, 
was  the  most  fruitful  element  in  the  bequest  which  the  ancient 
Hebrews  made  to  the  younger  Aryan  world  of  Europe,  and  is 
largely  what  entitles  them  to  the  preeminent  place  they  hold  in 
the  history  of  humanity. 

88.  Ideas  of  the  Future  Life.  —  Speaking  of  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception of  the  after  life,  Sir  George  Rawlinson  says  :  "  How  it 
happened  that  in  Egyptian  thought  the  future  life  occupied  so 
large  a  space,  and  was  felt  to  be  so  real  and  so  substantial,  while 
among  the  Hebrews  and  the  other  Semites  it  remained,  even  after 
contact  with  Egypt,  so  vague  and  shadowy,  is  a  mystery  which  it 
is  impossible  to  penetrate." 

The  Hebrew  conception  of  the  future  life  was  borrowed  from 
the  Babylonians.  Sheol  was  the  Babylonian  "  land  of  no  return  " 
(sec.  57),  a  vague  and  shadowy  region  beneath  the  earth,  a  sad  and 
dismal  place.  "  The  small  and  the  great  were  there."  There  was 
no  distinction  even  between  the  good  and  the  bad ;  the  same 
lot  awaited  all  who  went  down  into  the  *' pit."  The  good  man 
was  thought  to  receive  his  reward  in  long  life  and  prosperity  here 
on  earth. 

As  time  passed  the  Hebrews  exchanged  this  gloomy  Babylonian 
conception  of  the  other  life  for  one  more  like  that  of  old  Egypt, 


82  THE   HEBREWS 

so  that  it  was  finally  by  them  that  the  doctrine  of  immortality 
and  of  a  coming  judgment  was  spread  abroad  in  the  Western 
world. 

Selection  from  the  Sources.  —  The  Old  Testament,  i  Kings,  v-viii,  the 
building  and  the  dedication  by  Solomon  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem. 

References  (Modern).  —  Sayce,  Early  Israel  and  the  Stcrroiindhig 
Nations.  Kent,  A  History  of  the  Hebrew  People,  2  vols.  Renan,  His- 
tory of  the  People  of  Israel,  4  vols.  Corn  ill.  History  of  the  People  of 
Israel.  Boughton,  History  of  Ancient  Peoples,  pp.  345-427.  HiLPRECHT, 
Recent  Research  in  Bible  Lands  and  Exploj-ations  in  Bible  Lands  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century.  Consult  Tables  of  Contents.  Montefiore,  Lectures 
on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  as  illustrated  by  the  Religion  of  the 
Ancient  Hebrews.  ^tOA.,  Light  from  the  East.  Duff,  The  Theology  aitd 
Ethics  of  the  Hebrews.  The  special  student  will  of  course  consult 
McCurdy,  History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monuments. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  Influence  of  early  Babylonian  culture 
on  Israel.  2.  The  Exile  in  Babylon  and  its  influence  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  religion.  3.  Eariier  Hebrew  ideas  of  the  future  life. 
4.  Temple  and  priest.  5.  Prophecy  and  prophet.  6.  Hebrew  laws  respecting 
usury,  the  land,  and  the  bondsman. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
THE   PHCENICIANS 

89.  The  Land  and  the  People.  —  Ancient  Phoenicia  embraced  a 
little  strip  of  broken  seacoast  lying  between  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  and  the  ranges  of  Mount  Lebanon.^  One  of  the  most  noted 
productions  of  the  country  was  the  fine  fir  timber  cut  from  the 
forests  that  crowned  the  lofty  ranges  of  the  Lebanon  Mountains. 
The  "  cedars  of  Lebanon  "  hold  a  prominent  place  both  in  the 
history  and  in  the  poetry  of  the  East. 

Another  celebrated  product  of  the  country  w^as  the  Tyrian 
purple,  which  was  obtained  from  several  varieties  of  the  murex,  a 
species  of  shellfish,  secured  at  first  along  the  Phoenician  coast,  but 
later  sought  in  distant  waters,  especially 
in  the  Grecian  seas. 

The  Phoenicians  were  of  Semitic  race. 
Their  ancestors  lived  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Persian  Gulf.  From  their 
seats  in  that  region  they  migrated  west- 
ward, like  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews,  y^^  ^_,  _  ^^^^^^^  ^^  ^^^ 
and  reached  the  Mediterranean  before     Murex.    (After  Maspero) 

the  light  of  history  had  fallen  upon  its  The  mollusks  which  secrete  the 
shores.  famous   purple    dye    of   the 

_  ,    «. ,  r^,  .  ancient  Tyrians 

90.  Tyre  and  Sidon.  —  The  various 

Phoenician  cities  never  coalesced  to  form  a  true  nation.  They 
constituted  merely  a  sort  of  league  or  confederacy,  the  petty 
states  of  which  generally  acknowledged  the  leadership  of  Tyre 
or  of  Sidon,  the  two  chief  cities.  The  place  of  supremacy  in  the 
confederation  was  at  first  held  by  Sidon,  but  later  by  Tyre. 

1  In  the  study  of  this  chapter,  the  maps  which  will  be  found  at  pp.  yS  and  154 
should  be  used. 

83 


84 


THE   PHCENICIANS 


From  the  eleventh  to  the  fourth  century  B.C.  Tyre  controlled, 
almost  without  dispute  on  the  part  of  Sidon,  the  affairs  of  Phoenicia. 
During  this  time  the  maritime  enterprise  and  energy  of  her  mer- 
chants spread  the  fame  of  the  little  island  capital  throughout  the 
world.     She  was  queen  and  mistress  of  the  Mediterranean. 

During  all  the  last  centuries  of  their  existence  the  Phoenician 
cities  were,  most  of  the  time,  tributary  to  one  or  another  of  the 
great  monarchies  about  them.  They  acknowledged  in  turn  the 
suzerainty  of  the  Egyptian,  the  Assyrian,  the  Babylonian,  the  Per- 
sian, and  the  Macedonian  kings.  Alexander  the  Great  after  a 
memorable  siege  captured  the  city  of  Tyre  and  reduced  it  to 
ruins  (332  B.C.).  She  recovered  in  a  measure  from  this  blow, 
but  never  regained  the  place  she  had  previously  held  in  the  world. 
The  larger  part  of  the  site  of  the  once  great  city  is  now  "  bare 
as  the  top  of  a  rock," — a  place  where  the  fishermen  that  still 
frequent  the  spot  spread  their  nets  to  dry. 

91.  Phoenician  Commerce. — When  we  catch  our  first  ghmpse 
of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  about  1500  B.C.,  it  is  dotted  with 
the  sails  of  Phoenician  navigators.     It  was  natural  that  the  people 

of  the  Phoenician 
coast  should  have 
been  led  to  a  seafar- 
ing life.  The  lofty 
mountains  that  back 
the  little  strip  of 
shore  seemed  to  shut 
them  out  from  a 
career  of  conquest 
and  to  prohibit  an 
extension  of  their 
land  domains.     At 


r — Y — v-\<  \ 


Fig.  53.  —  Phcenician  Galley. 
an  Assyrian  sculpture) 


(From 


the  same  time,  the  Mediterranean  in  front  invited  them  to  mari- 
time enterprise,  while  the  forests  of  Lebanon  in  the  rear  offered 
timber  in  abundance  for  their  ships. 

The  Phoenicians,  indeed,  seem  to  have  been  the  first  navigators 
of  the  Great  Sea  who  pushed  out  boldly  from  the  shore  and  made 


PHOENICIAN    COLONIES  85 

voyages  out  of  sight  of  land.  It  is  believed  that  they  were  the 
first  to  steer  their  ships  at  night  by  the  Polar  Star,  since  the  Greeks 
called  this  the  Phoenician  Star. 

One  of  the  earliest  centers  of  activity  of  the  Phoenician  traders 
was  the  ^gean  Sea.  Here  they  exchanged  wares  with  the  natives, 
searched  the  seas  for  the  purple-yielding  mollusks,  and  mined  the 
hills  for  gold.  Herodotus  avers  that  a  whole  mountain  on  one 
of  the  islands  was  turned  upside  down  by  them  in  their  search 
for  ores. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  tenth  or  the  ninth  century  B.C.  the 
jealousy  of  the  Greek  city-states,  now  growing  into  maritime 
power,  closed  the  ^gean  against  the  Phoenician  adventurers. 
They  then  pushed  out  into  the  Western  Mediterranean.  One  chief 
object  of  their  quest  here  was  tin,  which  was  in  great  demand  on 
account  of  its  use  in  the  manufacture  of  bronze.  The  precious 
metal  was  first  supphed  by  the  mines  opened  in  the  Iberian 
(Spanish)  peninsula.  Later  the  bold  Phoenician  sailors  passed 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  braved  the  dangers  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
brought  back  from  those  stormy  seas  the  tin  gathered  in  the 
mines  of  Britain.^ 

92.  Phoenician  Colonies.  —  Along  the  different  routes  pursued 
by  their  ships,  and  upon  the  coasts  visited  by  them,  the  Phoenicians 
established  naval  stations  and  trading  posts.  The  sites  chosen 
were  generally  island^  or  promontories  easily  defended,  and  visible 
from  afar  to  approaching  ships. 

Settlements  were  planted  in  Cyprus,  in  Rhodes,  and  on  other 
islands  of  the  ^gean  Sea,  and  probably  even  in  Greece  itself. 


2  From  the  mother  city  Tyre  and  from  all  her  important  colonies  and  trading 
posts  radiated  long  routes  of  land  travel  by  which  articles  were  conveyed  from  the 
interior  of  the  continents  to  the  Mediterranean  seaboard.  Thus  amber  was  brought 
from  the  Baltic,  through  the  forests  of  Germany,  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Padus 
(Po),  in  Italy,  while  the  tin  of  the  British  Isles  was,  at  first,  brought  across  Gaul  to 
the  outlets  of  the  Rhone,  and  there  loaded  upon  the  Phoenician  ships.  The  trade 
with  India  was  carried  on  by  way  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  Red  Sea,  great  cara- 
vans bearing  the  burdens  from  the  ports  at  the  heads  of  these  seas  across  the  Arabian 
and  Syrian  deserts  to  the  warehouses  of  Tyre.  Other  routes  led  from  Phoenicia 
across  the  Mesopotamian  plains  to  Armenia,  Assyria,  Babylonia,  Persia,  and  thence 
on  into  the  heart  of  Central  Asia. 


THE    PHCENICIANS 


BABYLONIAN 
ARCHAIC 

PHCENICIAN, 
OLDARAM^AN 

BABYLONIAN 
NAMES  AND  SOUNDS 

SEMITIC 
NAMES 

J 

^     ¥ 

/lal  {al,  al),  to  flow  ; 
running  water 

al-p 

^ 

$  e  s 

bait),  biif),  slit 

bet 

) 

~\^r^ 

gam,  bend,  bow 

glm-l 

^  A 

A  ^ 

kii{ti),  gush,  bright, 
ge,  ear 

dal-t 

V  i 

<\A<^ 

da,  make,  dal,  shine, 
Dallu 

The  shores  of  the  islands  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia  were  fringed  with 
Phoenician  colonies ;  while  the  coast  of  North  Africa  was  dotted 
with  such  great  cities  as  Utica,  Hippo,  and  Carthage.     Colonies 

were  even  planted 
beyond  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules,  upon 
the  Atlantic  sea- 
board. The  Phoe- 
nician settlement 
ofGades,  upon  the 
western  coast  of 
Spain,  is  still  pre- 
served  in  the 
modern  Cadiz. 

93.  Arts  dis- 
seminated by  the 
Phoenicians;  the 
Alphabet.  — Com- 
merce has  been 
called  the  path- 
breaker  of  civil- 
ization. Certainly 
it  was  such  in  an- 
tiquity when  the 
Phoenician  traders 
carried  in  their 
ships  to  every 
Mediterranean 
land  the  wares  of 
the  workshops  of 
Tyre  and  Sidon, 
and  along  with  these  material  products  carried  also  the  seeds  of 
culture  from  the  ancient  lands  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia.  In  truth 
we  can  scarcely  overrate  the  influence  of  Phoenician  maritime 
enterprise  upon  the  distribution  of  the  arts  and  the  spread  of  cul- 
ture among  the  early  peoples  of  the  Mediterranean  area.    "  Egypt 


PHCENICIAN 

ANCIENT  GREEK 

LATER  GREEK 

ENGLISH 

^^ 

i\    4/lA 

A    A 

A 

^ 

^         ^ 

B 

B 

/in 

A^  AC 

r 

C 

AA 

^AVP 

A 

D 

^ 

\^J^^^ 

E   G 

E 

1 

A  /^ 

F 

Z 

s  z  ^ 

Z 

Z 

Fig.  54.  —  Table  showing  (i)  Possible  Deriva- 
tion    OF     THE     PHCENICIAN     ALPHABET     FROM 

Cuneiform  Characters  (after  Ball) ;  and  (2) 
Development  of  English  Letters  from  the 
phcenician 


ARTS  DISSEMINATED  BY  THE   PHCENICIANS       ^y 

and  Assyria,"  says  Lenormant,  "were  the  birthplace  of  material 
civihzation;  the  Phcenicians  were  its  missionaries." 

Most  fruitful  of  all  the  arts  which  the  Phoenicians  introduced 
among  the  peoples  with  whom  they  traded  was  the  art  of  alpha- 
betic writing.  As  early  at  least  as  900  b.c.  they  were  in  posses- 
sion of  an  alphabet.  Now  wherever  the  Phoenician  traders  went 
they  carried  this  alphabet  as  "  one  of  their  exports."  It  was  through 
them  that  the  Greeks  received  it ;  the  Greeks  passed  it  on  to  the 
Romans,  and  the  Romans  gave  it  to  the  German  peoples.  In 
this  way  our  alphabet  came  to  us  from  the  ancient  East.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  this  gift  of  the  alpha- 
bet to  the  Aryan-speaking  peoples  of  Europe.  Without  it  their 
civilization  could  never  have  become  so  rich  and  progressive  as 
it  did. 

Among  the  other  elements  of  culture  which  the  Phoenicians 
carried  to  the  peoples  of  the  Mediterranean  lands,  the  most 
important,  after  alphabetical  writing,  were  systems  of  weights  and 
measures.  These  are  indispensable  agents  of  civilization,  and 
hold  some  such  relation  to  the  development  of  trade  and  com- 
merce as  letters  hold  to  the  development  of  the  intellectual  life. 

Phoenician  commercial  enterprise  was  also  one  of  the  agencies 
through  which  the  peoples  of  Europe  learned  the  use  of  bronze, 
which  marks  an  epoch  in  their  growing  culture.  Bronze  articles 
of  Phoenician  workmanship  are  found  in  the  earliest  tombs  of  the 
Greeks,  the  Etruscans,  and  the  Romans. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  — The  Bible,  Ezek.  xxvii,  A  striking  por- 
trayal by  the  prophet  of  the  commerce,  the  trade  relations,  and  the  wealth 
of  Tyre.  The  Voyage  of  Hanno,  a.  record  of  a  Phoenician  exploring  expedi- 
tion down  the  western  coast  of  Africa.  A  translation  of  this  celebrated 
record  will  be  found  in  Rawlinson's  History  of  Phceiiicia,  pp.  389-392. 

References  (Modern).  —  Rawlinson,  History  of  Phcenicia,  and  The 
Story  of  Phanicia.  Kenrick,  Phccnicia.  Old  (1855),  but  still  valuable. 
Lenormant  and  Chevallier,  Ancient  History  of  the  East,  vol.  ii.  Con- 
sult Table  of  Contents.  Sayce,  The  Ancient  Empires  of  the  East,  chap.  iii. 
DUNCKER,  History  of  Antiquity,  vol.  ii,  bk.  iii,  chaps,  xi  and  xii. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  trade  routes  of  the  Phoenicians. 
2.  The  Phoenicians  and  the  alphabet.     3.  The  Tyrian  purple  dye. 


CHAPTER    IX 
THE  PERSIAN   EMPIRE 

(558-330  B.C.) 

I.  Political  History 

94.  Kinship  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  —  It  was  in  very 
remote  times  that  some  Aryan  tribes,  separating  themselves  from 
the  other  members  of  the  Aryan  family,  sought  new  abodes  on 
the  plateau  of  Iran.  The  tribes  that  settled  in  the  south  became 
known  as  the  Persians ;  while  those  that  took  possession  of  the 
mountain  regions  of  the  northwest  were  called  Medes.  The 
names  of  the  two  peoples  were  always  very  closely  associated, 
as  in  the  familiar  legend,  "  The  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
w^hich  altereth  not." 

95.  The  Medes  at  first  the  Leading  Race.  —  Although  the 
Persians  were  destined  to  become  the  dominant  tribe  of  all  the 
Iranian  Aryans,  still  the  Medes  were  at  first  the  leading  people. 
Cyaxares  (625-585  B.C.)  was  their  first  prominent  leader  and 
king.  We  have  already  seen  how,  aided  by  the  Babylonians, 
he  overthrew  the  last  king  of  Nineveh,  and  burned  that  capital 
(sec.  68).  The  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  power  resulted  in 
the  speedy  extension  of  the  frontiers  of  the  new  Median  Empire 
to  the  river  Halys  in  Asia  Minor. 

96.  Cyrus  the  Great  (558-529  B.C.)  founds  a  Great  World 
Empire. — The  leadership  of  the  Median  chieftains  was  of  short 
duration.  A  certain  Cyrus,  king  of  Anshan,  in  Ekm,  overthrew 
their  power,  and  assumed  the  headship  of  both  Medes  and 
Persians.  Through  his  energy  and  soldierly  genius  Cyrus  soon 
built  up  an  empire  more  extended  than  any  over  which  the 
scepter  had  yet  been  swayed  by  Oriental  monarch,  or  indeed, 
so  far  as  we  know,  by  any  ruler  before  his  time. 

88 


CYRUS   THE   GREAT  89 

After  the  conquest  of  Media  and  the  acquisition  of  the  prov- 
inces formerly  ruled  by  the  Median  princes,  Cyrus  rounded  out 
his  empire  by  the  conquest  of  Lydia  and  Babylonia. 

Lydia  was  a  country  in  the  western  part  of  Asia  Minor.  It  was 
a  land  highly  favored  by  nature.  It  embraced  two  rich  river  val- 
leys, —  the  plains  of  the  Hermus  and  the  Cayster,  —  which,  from 
the  mountains  inland,  slope  gently  to  the  island-dotted  ^gean. 
The  Pactolus,  and  other  tributaries  of  the  streams  we  have  named, 
rolled  down  **  golden  sands,"  while  the  mountains  were  rich  in  the 
precious  metals.  The  coast  region  did  not  at  first  belong  to  Lydia; 
it  was  held  by  the  Greeks,  who  had  fringed  it  with  cities.  The 
capital  of  the  country  was  Sardis,  whose  citadel  was  set  on  a  lofty 
and  precipitous  rock. 

The  Lydian  throne  was  at  this  time  held  by  Croesus  (560— 
546  B.C.),  the  last  and  most  renowned  of  his  race.  Under  him 
the  Lydian  dominions  attained  their  greatest  extension,  embracing 
all  the  states  of  Asia  Minor  west  of  the  Halys,  save  Lycia.  The 
tribute  Croesus  collected  from  the  Greek  cities,  which  he  had 
subjugated,  and  the  revenues  he  derived  from  his  gold  mines, 
rendered  him  the  richest  monarch  of  his  times,  so  that  his  name 
has  passed  into  the  proverb  "rich  as  Croesus." 

Now  the  fall  of  Media,  whi<:h  had  been  a  friendly  and  allied 
power,  and  the  extension  thereby  of  the  domains  of  the  conqueror 
Cyrus  to  the  eastern  frontiers  of  Lydia,  naturally  filled  Croesus 
with  alarm.  He  at  once  formed  an  alHance  with  Nabonidus, 
king  of  Babylon,  and  with  Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  both  of  whom, 
like  Croesus,  were  filled  with  apprehensions  respecting  the  safety 
of  their  own  kingdoms.  Furthermore,  Croesus  formed  an  alli- 
ance with  the  Greek  city  of  Sparta,  which  was  now  rising  into 
prominence. 

Without  waiting  for  his  alHes  to  join  him,  Croesus  immediately 
crossed  the  river  Halys  and  threw  down  the  gage  of  battle  to 
Cyrus.  But  he  had  miscalculated  the  strength  and  activity  of 
his  enemy.  Cyrus  defeated  the  Lydians  in  the  open  field,  and 
after  a  short  siege  captured  Sardis.  Lydia  now  became  a  part 
of  the  Persian  Empire  (546  B.C.). 


90 


THE    PERSIAN   EMPIRE 


Fig. 


This  war  between  Croesus  and  Cyrus  derives  a  special  impor- 
tance from  the  fact  that  it  brought  the  Persian  Empire  into  contact 
with  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia,  and  thus  led 
on  directly  to  that  memorable  struggle  be- 
tween   Greece    and    Persia    known    as    the 
Grasco-Persian  War,  the  inci- 
dents of  which  we  shall  nar- 
rate in  a  later  chapter. 

The  fall  of  Lydia  was  quickly 
followed  by  that  of  Babylonia 
(in  538  B.C.),  as  has  been 
already  related  as  part  of  the 
story  of  the  Chaldean  Empire 
(sec.  77).  Cyrus  had  now 
55.  — Crcesus  on  the  Pyrei  rounded  out  his  dominions. 
Tradition  says  that  Cyrus  lost  his  life  while  leading  an  expe- 
dition against  some  Scythian  tribes  in  the  North.  He  was 
buried  at  Pasargadae,  the  old  Persian  capital,  and  there  his  tomb 
stands  to-day,  sur- 
rounded by  the 
ruins  of  the  mag- 
nificent buildings 
with  which  he 
adorned  that  city. 
The  following  cu- 
neiform inscription 
may  still  be  read 
upon  a  pillar  near 
the  sepulcher  :  "I 
am  Cyrus,  the  king,  yig.  56. 
the  Akhsemenian." 

Notwithstanding  his  seeming  love  for  war  and  conquest,  Cyrus 
possessed  a  kindly  and  generous  disposition.     Almost  universal 

1  Legend  tells  how  Cyrus  caused  a  pyre  to  be  built  on  which  to  burn  Crcesus,  and 
how  Apollo,  because  the  king  had  made  rich  gifts  to  his  shrine,  put  out  the  kindling 
fire  by  a  sudden  downpour  of  rain. 


^^r 


The  Tomb  of  Cyrus  at  Pasargad^. 


REIGN   OF   CAMBYSES 


91 


testimony  has  ascribed  to  him  the  purest  and  most  beneficent 
character  of  any  Eastern  monarch. 

97.  Reign  of  Cambyses  (529-522  b.c).  —  Cyrus  the  Great 
left  tsvo  sons,  Cambyses  and  Smerdis ;  the  former,  as  the  elder, 
inherited  the  scepter  and  the  title  of  king.  He  began  a  despotic 
and  unfortunate  reign  by  causing  his  brother,  whose  influence  he 
feared,  to  be  secretly  put  to  death. 

With  far  less  ability  than  his  father  for  their  execution,  Cambyses 
conceived  even  vaster  projects  of  conquest  and  dominion.  He 
determined  to  add  the  country  of  Africa  to  his  vast  inheritance. 


Upon  some  shght  pre- 
text he  invaded  Egypt, 
captured  Memphis,  and 
ascended  the  Nile  to 
Thebes.  From  here  he 
sent  an  army  of  fifty 
thousand  men  to  take 
possession  of  the  oasis 
of  Ammon,^  in  the  Lib- 
yan desert.  Of  the  vast 
host  not  a  man  returned 
from  the  expedition.  It 
is  thought  that  the  army 
was  overwhelmed  and 
buried  by  one  of  those 


_^,.    ,M  > 


*. 


V 


1: 


Fig.  57.  —  Insurgent  Captives  brought 
BEFORE  Darius 


(From  the  Behistun  Rock) 

Beneath  the  foot  of  the  king  is  Gomates,  the 
false  Smerdis 

fatal  storms,  called  simoons,  that  so  frequently  sweep  over  those 
dreary  wastes  of  sand. 

After  a  short,  unsatisfactory  stay  in  Egypt,  Cambyses  set  out  on 
his  return  to  Persia.  While  on  his  way  home,  news  was  brought 
to  him  that  his  brother  Smerdis  had  usurped  the  throne  (an 
impostor,  Gomates  by  name,  who  resembled  the  murdered  Smerdis, 
had  personated  him,  and  actually  seized  the  scepter).  Entirely 
disheartened  by  this  startling  intelligence,  Cambyses  in  despair 
took  his  own  life. 

2  This  oasis  was  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  operations  against  Carthage,  which  Cambyses 
was  planning  to  attack  by  way  of  the  desert 


92  THE   PERSIAN    EMPIRE 

98.  Reign  of  Darius  I  (521-484  b.c).  —  The  Persian  nobles 

soon  rescued  the  scepter  from  the  grasp  of  the  false  Smerdis, 
and  their  leader,  Darius,  took  the  throne.  The  first  act  of 
Darius  was  to  punish  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  usurpation 
of  Smerdis. 

With  quiet  and  submission  secured  throughout  the  empire, 
Darius  gave  himself,  for  a  time,  to  the  arts  of  peace.  He  built  a 
palace  at  Susa,  and  erected  magnificent  structures  at  Persepolis ; 
reformed  the  adminstration  of  the  government,  making  such  wise 
and  lasting  changes  that  he  has  been  called  "  the  second  founder 
of  the  Persian  Empire  " ;  established  post  roads,  instituted  a  coin- 
age for  the  realm,  and  upon  the  great  Behistun  Rock,  a  lofty, 

smooth-faced     cliff     on 

the  western  frontier  of 

Persia,    caused    to    be 

inscribed    a    record    of 

all  his  achievements. 

And   now  the    Great 

^.-_     x-ving,   lord  of  Western 

^_  ^^  Asia  and  of  Egypt,  con- 

~"  ""^'^         '  ceived  and  entered  upon 

Fig.  58.  —  The  Behistun  Rock  .  ^-  r  ♦. 

^  the    execution    of    vast 

(After  Rawlitisofi-Hilprecht)  ,      .  .  ,      . 

designs  of  conquest,  the 

far-reaching  effects   of  which  were   destined   to  live  long  after 

he  had  passed  away.     He  determined  to  extend  the  frontiers  of 

his  empire  into  India  and  Europe  alike. 

At  one  blow  Darius  brought  the  region  of  Northwestern  India 
known  as  the  Punjab  under  his  authority,  and  thus  by  a  single 
effort  pushed  out  the  eastern  boundary  of  his  empire  so  that  it 
included  one  of  the  richest  countries  of  Asia. 

Two  campaigns  in  Europe  followed.  The  second  brought 
Darius  into  contact  with  the  Greeks,  of  whom  we  shall  soon 
hear  much.  How  the  armaments  of  the  Great  King  fared  at  the 
hands  of  this  freedom-loving  people,  who  now  appear  for  the  first 
time  as  prominent  participators  in  large  world  affairs,  will  be  told 
when  we  come  to  narrate  the  history  of  the  Greek  city-states. 


REIGN   OF   XERXES    I 


93 


We  need  now  simply  note  the  result,  —  the  decisive  defeat  of  the 
Persians  at  Marathon  (490  B.C.).  In  the  midst  of  preparations 
for  another  attempt  upon  Greece,  and  with  the  Egyptians  in  revolt, 
Darius  suddenly  died,  in  the  year  484  B.C. 

99.  Reign  of  Xerxes  I  (484-464  b.c). — The  successor  of  Darius, 
his  son  Xerxes,  resolved  to  carry  into  execution  his  father's  pur- 
pose of  revenge.  After  crushing  the  Egyptian  revolt  and  sup- 
pressing another  uprising  in  Babylonia,  the  Great  King  was  free 
to  devote  his  attention  to  the  distant  Greeks.  At  the  head  of  an 
immense  army  he  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  invaded  Greece. 
But  in  the  naval  battle  of  Salamis  (sec.  212)  his  fleet  was  cut  to 


Fig.  59.  —  Royal  Persian   Tombs  near  Persepolis.   {k.i\Q.x  Dieiilafoy) 

pieces  by  the  Grecian  ships,  and  the  king,  making  a  precipitate 
retreat  into  Asia,  hastened  to  his  capital  Susa.  Here,  in  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  harem,  he  sought  solace  for  his  wounded  pride  and 
broken  hopes.  He  at  last  fell  a  victim  to  palace  intrigue,  being 
slain  in  his  own  chamber  (464  B.C.). 

100.  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Persian  Empire.  —  The  power 
and  supremacy  of  the  Persian  monarchy  passed  away  with  the 
reign  of  Xerxes.  The  last  one  hundred  and  forty  years  of  the 
existence  of  the  empire  was  a  time  of  weakness  and  anarchy, 
which  presents  nothing  that  need  claim  our  attention  in  this  place. 

In  the  year  334  B.C.  Alexander  the  Great,  king  of  Macedonia, 
led  a  small  army  of  Greeks  and  Macedonians  across  the  Hellespont 


94  THE    PERSIAN    EMPIRE 

intent  upon  the  conquest  of  Asia.  His  succeeding  movements 
and  the  establishment  of  the  short-lived  Macedonian  monarchy 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  Persian  Empire  are  matters  that  properly 
belong  to  Grecian  history,  and  will  be  related  at  a  later  stage  of 
our  story. 

II.   Government,   Religion,  and  Arts 

1 01 .  The  Government.  — Before  the  reign  of  Darius  I  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Persian  Empire  was  like  that  of  all  the  great  empires 
that  had  preceded  it,  save  the  Assyrian  in  a  measure  and  for  a 
short  space  of  time ;  that  is  to  say,  it  consisted  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  subject  states,  which  were  allowed  to  retain  their  own  kings 
and  manage  their  own  affairs,  only  paying  tribute  and  homage  and 
furnishing  contingents,  when  called  upon  in  time  of  war,  to  the 
Great  King. 

We  have  seen  how  weak  was  this  rude  and  primitive  type  of 
government.  Darius  I,  who  possessed  rare  ability  as  an  organizer, 
remodeled  the  system  of  his  predecessors,  and  actually  reahzed 
for  the  Persian  monarchy  what  Tiglath-Pileser  III  had  long  before 
attempted,  but  only  with  partial  and  temporary  success,  to  accom- 
plish for  the  Assyrian  (sec.  64). 

The  system  of  government  which  Darius  thus  first  made  a 
real  fact  in  the  world  is  known  as  the  satrapal,  a  form  represented 
to-day  by  the  Turkish  Empire.  The  entire  kingdom  was  divided 
into  twenty  or  more  provinces,  over  each  of  which  was  placed  a 
governor,  called  a  satrap,  appointed  by  the  king.  These  officials 
held  their  position  at  the  pleasure  of  the  sovereign,  and  were  thus 
rendered  his  subservient  creatures.  Each  province  contributed 
to  the  income  of  the  king  a  stated  revenue. 

There  were  provisions  in  the  system  by  which  the  king  might 
be  apprised  of  the  disloyalty  of  his  satraps.  Thus  the  whole 
dominion  was  firmly  cemented  together,  and  the  facility  with 
which  almost  sovereign  states  —  which  was  the  real  character  of 
the  different  parts  of  the  empire  under  the  old  system — could 
plan  and  execute  revolt,  was  removed. 


LITERATURE   AND   RELIGION 


95 


102.  Literature  and  Religion :  Zoroastrianism.  — The  literature 
of  the  ancient  Persians  was  mostly  religious.  Their  sacred  book 
is  called  the  Zend  Avesta. 

The  religious  system  of  the  Persians,  as  taught  in  the  Zend 
Avesta^  is  known  as  Zoroastrianism,  from  Zoroaster,  its  supposed 
founder.  This  great  reformer  and  teacher  is  believed  to  have 
lived  and  taught  about  six  centuries  before  our  era. 

Zoroastrianism  was  a  system  of  belief^  known  as  duahsm. 
Opposed  to  the  "good  spirit,"  Ormazd  (Ahura  Mazda),  there 
was  a  "dark  spirit,"  Ahriman  (Angro-Mainyus),  who  was  con- 
stantly striving  to  destroy  the  good 
creations  of  Ormazd  by  creating 
all  evil  things  —  storm,  drought, 
pestilence,  noxious  animals,  weeds 
and  thorns  in  the  world  without, 
and  evil  in  the  heart  of  man 
within.  From  all  eternity  these 
two  powers  had  been  contending 
for  the  mastery;  in  the  present 
neither  had  the  decided  advan- 
tage ;  but  in  the  near  future 
Ormazd  would  triumph  over  Ahri- 
man, and  evil  be  forever  destroyed. 

The  duty   of    man   was   to   aid 
Ormazd    by    working    with    him 
against    the    evil-loving    Ahriman.    Fig.  60.  — The  King  in  Combat 
He  must  labor  to  eradicate  every  with  a  Monster 

evil  and  vice  in  his  own  bosom ;  (^''^"^  Persepolis) 

to  reclaim  the  earth  from  barrenness ;  and  to  kill  all  noxious  ani- 
mals—  frogs,  toads,  snakes,  lizards  —  which  Ahriman  had  created. 
Herodotus  saw  with  amazement  the  priests  armed  with  weapons 
and  engaged  in  slaying  these  animals  as  a  "  pious  pastime." 
Agriculture  was  a  sacred  calling,  for  the  husbandman  was  reclaim- 
ing the  ground  from  the  curse  of  the  dark  spirit.^ 

3  The  belief  of  the  Zoroastrians  in  the  sacredness  of  the  elements  —  earth,  water^^^ 
fire,  and  air  —  created  a  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  disposal  of  dead  bodies.     They 


96 


THE    PERSIAN  EMPIRE 


T03.  Architecture. — The  simple  religious  faith  of  the  Persians 
discouraged  the  erection  of  temples ;  their  sacred  architecture 
included  scarcely  more  than  altar  and  pedestal.  The  palace  of 
the  monarch  was  the  structure  that  absorbed  the  best  efforts  of  the 
Persian  architect. 

In  imitation  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates, 
the  Persian  kings  raised  their  palaces  upon  lofty  terraces  or  plat- 
forms. But  upon  the  table-lands  they  used  stone  instead  of  brick, 
and  at  Persepolis  built  for  the  substruction  of  their  palaces  an 


Fig.  61.  —  The  Ruins  of  Persepolis 

immense  platform  of  massive  masonry,  which,  with  its  sculptured 
stairways,  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  monuments  of  the  world's 
ancient  builders.  This  terrace,  which  is  uninjured  by  the  2300 
years  that  have  passed  since  its  erection,  has  been  pronounced  by 
competent  judges  the  finest  work  of  the  kind  that  the  ancient  or 
even  the  modern  world  can  boast. 

Surmounting  this  platform  are  the  ruins  of  the  residences  of 
several  of  the  Persian  monarchs.     The  ruins  consist  mainly  of 


could  neither  be  burned,  buried,  thrown  into  the  water,  nor  left  to  decay  in  a  sepul- 
chral chamber  or  in  the  open  air  without  jDolluting  one  or  another  of  the  sacred 
elements.     So  they  were  usually  given  to  the  birds  and  wild  beasts. 


ARCHITECTURE  97 

lofty  columns  and  great  monolithic  door  and  window  frames. 
Colossal  winged  bulls,  copied  from  the  Assyrians,  stand  as  war- 
dens at  the  gateway  of  the  ruined  palaces. 

Numerous  sculptures  decorate  the  faces  of  the  walls,  and  these 
throw  much  light  upon  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  ancient 
Persian  kings.  The  successive  palaces  increase,  not  only  in  size, 
but  in  sumptuousness  of  adornment,  thus  registering  those  changes 
which  may  be  traced  in  the  national  history.  The  residence  of 
Cyrus  was  small  and  modest,  while  that  of  Artaxerxes  III  (359- 
338  B.C.)  equaled  in  size  the  great  palace  of  the  Assyrian  Sargon. 
Again,  the  sculptures  that  adorn  the  residences  of  the  earlier 
kings,  Cyrus  and  Darius,  represent  the  monarch  engaged  in  bold 
and  manly  combat  with  lions  and  other  monsters ;  while  already 
in  the  halls  and  chambers  of  the  palace  of  Xerxes  these  give  place 
X  to  representations  of  servants  bearing  articles  of  luxury  intended 
/for  royal  use.  "A  tone  of  mere  sensual  enjoyment  is  thus  given 
to  the  later  edifice  which  is  far  from  characterizing  the  earlier ; 
and  the  decline  at  the  court,  which  history  indicates  as  rapid 
about  this  period,  is  seen  to  have  stamped  itself,  as  such  changes 
usually  do,  upon  the  national  architecture"  (Rawlinson). 

Selections  from  the  Sources.— Herodotus,  i.  46-55  and  71-91,  on  Cyrus 
and  Croesus.  Harper's  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature,  pp.  174-187, 
"  The  Large  Inscription  of  Darius  from  Behistun."  (We  make  no  refer- 
ence either  here  or  in  the  following  chapter  to  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
for  the  reason  that  these  translations  are  in  general  not  suited  to  young 
readers.) 

References  (Modern).  —  Maspero,  The  Passing  of  the  E7npires,  chap.  vi. 
Rawlinson,  Five  Great  Monarchies,  vol.  iii,  pp.  84-539.  Sayce,  The  An- 
cient Empires  of  the  East,  chaps,  iv  and  v.  Wheeler,  Alexander  the  Great, 
chap.  xii.     Iackson,  Zoroaster,  the  Prophet  of  Ancient  Ira7i. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  sacredness  of  the  elements,  —  fire, 
earth,  water,  and  air.  2.  Dualism  in  the  Persian  religion.  3.  The  Zejid 
Avesta.  4.  The  royal  road  from  Susa  to  Sardis.  5.  The  satrapal  system 
of  government.     6.  The  ruins  of  Persepolis. 


CHAPTER  X 
INDIA  AND  CHINA 

I.   India 

104.  The  Aryan  Invasion.  —  At  the  time  of  the  great  Aryan  dis- 
persion (sec.  19),  some  Aryan  bands,  journeying  from  the  north- 
west, settled  first  the  plains  of  the  Indus  and  then  occupied  the 
valley  of  the  Ganges.  They  reached  the  banks  of  the  latter  river 
as  early  probably  as  1500  B.C. 

These  fair-skinned  invaders  found  the  land  occupied  by  a  dark- 
skinned,  non-Aryan  race,  whom  they  either  subjugated  and  reduced 
to  serfdom,  or  drove  out  of  the  great  river  valleys  into  the  moun- 
tains and  the  haK-desert  plains  of  the  peninsula. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  conquered  peoples,  who  doubtless 
formed  the  great  majority  of  the  population,  adopted  the  language 
and  the  religion  of  the  invaders.  "They  became  Aryans  in  all 
things  save  in  descent."  ^ 

105.  The  Development  of  the  System  of  Castes.  — The  conflict 
and  mingling  of  races  in  Northern  India  caused  the  population  to 
become  divided  into  four  "  social  grades  "  or  hereditary^  classes, 
based  on  color.  These  were  (i)  the  nobles  or  warriors;  (2)  the 
Brahmans  or  priests ;  ^  (3)  the  peasants  and  traders ;  and  (4)  the 
Sudras.  The  last  were  of  non-Aryan  descent.  Below  these 
several  grades  were  the  Pariahs  or  outcasts,  the  lowest  and  most 
despised  of  the  native  races.  The  marked  characteristics  of  this 
graded  society  were  that  intermarriage  between  the  classes  was 
forbidden,  and  that  the  members  of  different  classes  must  not 
eat  together  or  come  into  personal  contact. 

1  The  unsubdued  tribes  of  Southern  India,  known  as  Dravidians,  retained  their 
native  speech.  Over  54,000,000  of  the  present  population  of  India  are  non-Aryan  in 
language. 

2  At  a  later  period  the  Brahmans  arrogated  to  themselves  the  highest  rank. 

98 


THE  VEDAS  AND   THE   VEDIC  RELIGION         99 

The  development  of  this  system,  which  is  known  as  the  system 
of  castes,  is  one  of  the  most  important  facts  in  the  history  of 
India.  The  system,  however,  has  undergone  great  modification 
in  the  lapse  of  ages,  and  is  now  less  rigid  than  in  earlier  times. 
At  the  present  day  it  rests  largely  on  an  industrial  basis,  the  mem- 
bers of  every  trade  and  occupation  forming  a  distinct  caste.  The 
number  of  castes  is  now  about  2000. 

106.  The  Vedas  and  the  Vedic  Religion.  — The  most  important 
of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus  are  called  the  Vedas.  They 
are  written  in  the  Sanscrit  language,  which  is  the  oldest  form  of 
Aryan  speech  preserved  to  us.  The  Rig  Veda,  the  most  ancient 
of  the  books,  is  made  up  of  hymns  which  were  composed  chiefly 
during  the  long  period,  perhaps  a  thousand  years  or  more,  while 
the  Aryans  were  slowly  working  their  way  from  the  mountains 
on  the  northwest  of  India  across  the  peninsula  to  the  Ganges. 
These  hymns  are  filled  with  memories  of  the  long  conflict  of  the 
fair-faced  Aryans  with  the  dark-faced  aborigines.  The  Hima- 
layas, through  whose  gloomy  passes  the  early  emigrants  jour- 
neyed, must  have  deeply  impressed  the  wanderers,  for  the  poets 
often  refer  to  the  great  dark  mountains. 

The  early  religion  of  the  Indian  Aryans  was  a  worship  of  the 
powers  of  nature.  As  this  system  characterized  the  period  when 
the  oldest  Vedic  hymns  were  composed,  it  is  known  as  the  Vedic 
religion. 

107.  Brahmanism  and  the  Doctrine  of  the  Transmigration  of 
Souls.  — As  time  passed  this  nature  worship  of  the  Vedic  period 
developed  into  a  form  of  religion  known  as  Brahmanism.  It  is  so 
named  from  Brahma,  which  is  the  Hindu  name  for  the  Supreme 
Being.     Below  Brahma  there  are  many  gods. 

A  chief  doctrine  of  Brahmanism  is  that  all  life,  apart  from 
Brahma,  is  evil,  is  travail  and  sorrow.  We  can  make  this  idea 
plain  to  ourselves  by  recalling  what  are  our  own  ideas  of  this 
earthly  hfe.  We  call  it  a  feverish  dream,  a  journey  through  a  vale 
of  sorrow.  Now  the  Hindu  regards  all  existence,  whether  in  this 
world  or  in  another,  in  the  same  light.  The  only  way  to  redemp- 
tion from  evil  lies   in  communion  with  and  final  reabsorption 


100  INDIA  AND   CHINA 

into  Brahma.  But  this  return  to  Brahma  is  dependent  upon 
the  soul's  purification,  for  no  impure  soul  can  be  reabsorbed  into 
Brahma.  The  purity  of  soul  required  for  reunion  with  Brahma 
can  best  be  attained  by  contemplation,  self-control,  and  renun- 
ciation ;  hence  the  asceticism  of  the  Hindu  devotee. 

As  only  a  few  in  each  generation  reach  the  goal,  it  follows  that 
the  great  majority  of  men  must  be  born  again,  and  yet  again,  until 
all  evil  has  been  purged  away  from  the  soul  and  eternal  repose 
found  in  Brahma.  He  who  lives  a  virtuous  life  is  at  death  born 
into  some  higher  caste,  and  thus  he  advances  towards  the  longed- 
for  end.  The  evil  man,  however,  is  born  into  a  lower  caste,  or 
perhaps  his  soul  enters  some  unclean  animal.  This  doctrine  of 
rebirth  is  known  as  the  transmigration  of  souls. 

In  the  early  period  only  the  first  three  classes  were  admitted  to 
the  benefits  of  religion.  The  Sudras  and  the  outcasts  were  for- 
bidden to  read  the  sacred  books,  and  for  any  one  of  the  upper 
classes  to  teach  a  serf  how  to  expiate  sin  was  a  crime. 

1 08.  Buddhism.  —  In  the  fifth  century  before  our  era  a  great 
teacher  and  reformer  named  Gautama  (about  557-477  B.C.),  but 
better  known  as  Buddha,  that  is  the  Enhghtened,  arose  in  India. 
He  was  more  Christlike  than  any  other  teacher  whose  life  and 
words  are  known  to  us.  He  was  born  a  prince,  but  legend  repre- 
sents him  as  being  so  touched  by  the  universal  misery  of  man- 
kind that  he  voluntarily  abandoned  the  luxury  of  his  home  and 
spent  his  life  in  seeking  out  and  making  known  to  men  a  new  and 
better  way  of  salvation.  His  creed  was  very  simple.  What  he 
taught  the  people  was  that  they  should  seek  salvation  —  that  is, 
deliverance  from  existence,  which  like  the  Brahman  he  felt  to 
be  an  evil  —  not  through  sacrifices  and  rites  and  self-torture,  but 
through  honesty  and  purity  of  heart,  through  charity  and  tender- 
ness and  compassion  toward  all  creatures  that  have  Hfe.^ 

Buddha  admitted  all  classes  to  the  benefits  of  religion,  the  poor 
outcast  as  well  as  the  high-born  Brahman,  and  thus  Buddhism 

3  The  aim,  in  Buddha's  system,  of  moral  striving  is  to  suppress  desire,  and  by- 
suppressing  desire  to  gain  the  sought-for  deliverance  in  Nirvana  ("extinction"). 
Buddha  did  not  recognize  the  existence  of  any  god,  and  enjoined  upon  his  disciples 
not  to  offer  any  prayers.     His  teachings  have  been  greatly  modified  by  his  followers. 


ALEXANDER'S   INVASION   OF   INDIA  loi 

was  a  revolt  against  the  earlier  exclusive  system  of  Brahmanism. 
It  holds  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  Brahmanism  that  Chris- 
tianity bears  to  Judaism. 

Buddhism  gradually  gained  ascendancy  over  Brahmanism ;  but 
after  some  centuries  the  Brahmans  regained  their  power,  and  by 
the  eighth  century  after  Christ  the  faith  of  Buddha  had  died  out 
or  had  been  crowded  out  of  almost  every  part  of  India. 

But  Buddhism  has  a  profound  missionary  spirit,  Hke  that  of 
Christianity,  Buddha  having  commanded  his  disciples  to  make 
known  to  all  men  the  way  to  salvation ;  and  consequently  during 
the  very  period  when  India  was  being  lost,  the  missionaries  of 
the  reformed  creed  were  spreading  the  teachings  of  their  master 
among  the  peoples  of  all  the  countries  of  Eastern  Asia,  so  that 
to-day  Buddhism  is  the  religion  of  almost  one  third  of  the  human 
race.  Buddha  has  probably  nearly  as  many  followers  as  both 
Christ  and  Mohammed  together. 

During  its  long  contact  with  Buddhism,  Brahmanism  was  greatly 
modified,  and  caught  much  of  the  gentler  spirit  of  the  new  faith, 
so  that  modern  Brahmanism  is  a  very  different  religion  from  that 
of  the  ancient  system ;  hence  it  is  usually  given  a  new  name, 
being  known  as  Hinduism.^ 

109.  Alexander's  Invasion  of  India  (327  b.c).  —  Although  we 
find  obscure  notices  of  India  in  the  records  of  the  early  historic 
peoples  of  Western  Asia,  yet  it  is  not  until  the  invasion  of  the 
peninsula  by  Alexander  the  Great  in  327  b.c.  that  the  history  of 
the  Indian  Aryans  comes  in  significant  contact  with  that  of  the 
progressive  nations  of  the  West. 

From  that  day  to  our  own  its  systems  of  philosophy,  its  wealth, 
and  its  commerce  have  been  more  or  less  important  factors  in 
universal  history.  Columbus  was  seeking  a  short  all-sea  route 
to  this  country  when  he  found  the  New  World.  And  in  the 
upbuilding  of  the  imperial  greatness  of  the  England  of  to-day, 
the  wealth  and  trade  of  India  have  played  no  inconsiderable  part. 

4  Among  the  customs  introduced  or  revived  by  the  Brahmans  during  this  period 
was  the  rite  of  suttee,  or  the  voluntary  burning  of  the  widow  on  the  funeral  pyre  of 
her  husband. 


102  INDIA  AND   CHINA 


II.  China 


no.  General  Remarks  :  the  Beginning.  —  China  was  the  cradle 
of  a  very  old  civilization,  older  perhaps  than  that  of  any  other 
lands  save  Egypt  and  Babylonia;  yet  Chinese  affairs  have  not 
until  recently  exercised  any  direct  influence  upon  the  general 
current  of  history.  All  through  the  later  ancient  and  mediaeval 
times  the  country  lay,  vague  and  mysterious,  in  the  haze  of  the 
world's  horizon.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the  land  was  known 
to  Europe  under  the  name  of  Cathay. 

The  beginning  of  the  Chinese  nation  was  a  band  of  Turanian 
wanderers  who  came  from  the  West  into  the  Yellow  River  valley, 
probably  prior  to  3000  B.C.  These  immigrants  pushed  out  or 
absorbed  the  aborigines  whom  they  found  in  the  land,  and  laid 
the  basis  of  institutions  that  have  endured  to  the  present  day. 

III.  Dynastic  History. — The  government  of  China  from  a 
remote  period  has  been  a  parental  monarchy.  The  emperor  is 
the  father  of  his  people.  But  though  an  absolute  prince,  he  dare 
not  rule  tyrannically ;  he  must  rule  justly  and  in  accordance  with 
the  ancient  customs  and  laws. 

The  Chinese  have  books  that  purport  to  give  the  history  of  the 
different  dynasties  that  have  ruled  in  the  land  from  a  vast  antiq- 
uity ;  but  these  records  are  largely  mythical.  While  it  is  possible 
to  glean  some  assured  historic  facts  from  the  third  and  second 
millenniums  B.C.,  it  is  not  until  we  reach  the  eighth  century  B.C. 
that  we  tread  on  firm  historical  ground ;  and  even  then  we  meet 
with  little  of  interest  in  the  dynastic  history  of  the  country  until 
we  come  to  the  reign  of  Che  Hwang-te  (246-210  B.C.).  This 
energetic  ruler  consolidated  the  imperial  power,  and  executed 
great  works  of  internal  improvement,  such  as  roads  and  canals. 
As  a  barrier  against  the  incursions  of  the  Huns,  he  began  the 
erection  of  the  celebrated  Chinese  Wall,  a  great  rampart  extending 
for  about  1500  miles  along  the  northern  frontier  of  the  country.^ 

5  The  Great  Wall  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  works  of  man.  "  It  is,"  says 
Dr.  Williams,  "  the  only  artificial  structure  which  would  arrest  attention  in  a  hasty 
survey  of  the  globe." 


ClIliNESE   WRITING  103 

From  the  strong  reign  of  Che  Hwang-te  to  the  end  of  the 
period  covered  by  ancient  history,  Chinese  dynastic  records 
present  no  matters  of  universal  interest  that  need  here  occupy 
our  attention. 

112.  Chinese  Writing. —  It  is  nearly  certain  that  the  art  of  pho- 
netic writing  was  known  among  the  Chinese  as  early  as  2000  B.C. 
The  system  employed  is  curiously  cumbrous.  In  the  absence  of 
an  alphabet,  each  word  of  the  language  is  represented  upon  the 
written  page  by  means  of  a  symbol,  or  combination  of  symbols ; 
this,  of  course,  requires  that  there  be  as  many  symbols  or  charac- 
ters as  there  are  words  in  the  language.  The  number  sanctioned 
by  good  use  is  about  25,000;  but  counting  obsolete  signs,  the 
number  amounts  to  over  50,000.  A  knowledge  of  5000  or  6000 
characters,  how-  • 

ever,   enables    one  ^Q^  ^    ^^     %     1>    <=W    A 
to  read    and  write 

xirnLiroft  0-  ti  m  :^  t;  f  A 

I       234567 

signs     shows    con- 

clusively    that    the   Fig.  62.- Showing  the  Derivation  of  Mod- 
•'  ERN    Chinese    Characters    from    Earlier 

Chmese    system    of        pictorial  Writing.6     (From  Deniker) 
writing,  like  that  of 

all  others  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  was  at  first  pure  picture 
writing  (sec.  12).  Time  and  use  have  worn  the  pictorial  symbols 
to  their  present  form. 

This  Chinese  system  of  representing  thought,  cumbrous  and 
inconvenient  as  it  is,  is  employed  at  the  present  time  by  one 
third  of  the  human  race. 

Printing  from  blocks  was  practiced  in  China  as  early  as  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era,  and  printing  from  movable  types  as  early 
as  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century,  —  that  is  to  say,  about  four  hun- 
dred years  before  the  same  art  was  invented  in  Europe. 

113.  The  Teachers  Confucius  and  Mencius. — The  great  teacher 
of  the  Chinese  was  Confucius  (551-478  B.C.).     He  was  not  a 

6  The  upper  line  shows  the  earlier  forms:  i,  morning;  2,  noon;  3,  mountain; 
4,  tree;  5,  dog;  6,  horse;  7,  man. 


104 


INDIA  AND    CHINA 


prophet  or  revealer;  he  laid  no  claims  to  a  supernatural  knowl- 
edge of  God  or  of  the  hereafter ;  he  said  nothing  of  an  Infinite 
Spirit,  and  but  little  of  a  future  life.  His  cardinal  precepts  were 
obedience  to  parents  and  superiors,  and  reverence  for  the  ancients 
and  imitation  of  their  virtues.  He  himself  walked  in  the  old 
paths,  and  thus  added  the  force  of  example  to  that  of  precept. 
He  gave  the  Chinese  the  Golden  Rule,  stated  negatively  :  "  What 
you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to  others."  The 
influence  of  Confucius  has  been  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
teacher  excepting  Christ  and  perhaps  Buddha. 

Another  great  teacher  of  the  Chinese  was  Mencius(372-2  88  B.C.). 
He  was  a  disciple  of  Confucius  and  a  scarcely  less  revered  phi- 
losopher  and  moral  teacher. 

114.  Chinese  Literature;  the  Burning  of  the  Books;  Influence 
of  this  Literature.  —  The  most  highly  prized  portion  of  Chinese 
literature  is  embraced  in  what  is  known  as  the  Five  Classics  and 
the  Four  Books,  called  collectively  the  Nine  Classics.  A  consider- 
able part  of  the  material  of  the  Five  Classics  was  collected  and 
edited  by  Confucius.  The  Four  Books,  though  not  written  by 
Confucius,  yet  bear  the  impress  of  his  mind  and  thought,  just  as 
the  Gospels  teach  the  mind  of  Christ.  The  cardinal  virtue  incul- 
cated by  all  the  sacred  writings  is  filial  piety. 

During  the  reign  of  Che  Hwang-te  (sec.  in),  Chinese  htera- 
ture  suffered  a  great  disaster.  That  despot,  for  the  reason  that  the 
teachers  in  their  opposition  to  him  were  constantly  quoting  the 
ancient  writings  against  his  innovations,  ordered  the  chief  histor- 
ical books  to  be  destroyed.  Those  who  refused  to  give  up  their 
books  he  sent  to  work  upon  the  Great  Wall.  But  the  people  con- 
cealed the  books  in  the  walls  of  their  houses,  or  better  still  hid 
them  away  in  their  memories  ;  and  in  this  way  the  priceless  inher- 
itance of  antiquity  was  preserved  until  the  storm  had  passed. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  influence  which  the  Nine 
Classics  have  had  upon  the  Chinese  nation.  For  more  than  2000 
years  these  writings  have  been  the  Chinese  Bible.  But  their 
influence  has  not  been  wholly  good.  The  Chinese  in  strictly 
obeying  the  injunction  to  walk  in  the  old  ways,  to  conform  to  the 


EDUCATION   AND   RELIGION  105 

customs  of  the  ancients,  have  failed  to  mark  out  any  new  foot- 
paths for  themselves.  Hence  their  lack  of  originahty,  their  habit 
of  imitation ;  hence  one  cause  of  the  unchanging,  unprogressive 
character  of  Chinese  civihzation. 

115.  Education  and  Civil  Service  Competitive  Examinations. — 
China  has   a  very  ancient  educational  system.     The  land  was 
filled  with  schools,  academies,  and  colleges  more  than  a  thousand 
years  before  our  era,  and  education  is  to-day  more  general  among 
the  Chinese  than  among  any  other  pagan  people.     A  knowledge     / 
of  the  sacred  books  is  the  sole  passport  to  civil  office  and  public    \ 
employment.     All  candidates  for  places  in  the  government  must 
pass  a  series  of  competitive  examinations  in  the  Nine  Classics. 
There  are  at  the  present  day  between  two  and  three  million  per- 
sons studying  for  these  literary  tests.      This  system  is  practically  y 
the  same  in  principle  as  that  which  we,  with  great  difficulty,  are.,^ 
trying  to  estabhsh  in  connection  with  our  own  civil  service. 

116.  The  Three  Religions, — Confucianism,  Taoism,  and  Bud- 
dhism. —  There  are  three  leading  religions  in  China,  —  Confu- 
cianism, Taoism,  and  Buddhism.  The  great  sage  Confucius  is 
reverenced  and  worshiped  throughout  the  empire.  He  holds 
somewhat  the  same  relation  to  the  system  that  bears  his  name 
that  Christ  holds  to  that  of  Christianity.  Taoism  takes  its  name 
from  Tao,  the  beginning  of  all  things.  It  is  a  very  curious  system 
of  mystical  ideas  and  superstitious  practices.  Buddhism  was  intro- 
duced into  China  about  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era,  and  soon 
became  widely  spread. 

There  is  one  element  common  to  all  these  religions,  and  that 
is  the  worship  of  ancestors.  Every  Chinese,  whether  he  be  a 
Confucianist,  a  Taoist,  or  a  Buddhist,  reverences  his  ancestors^ 
and  prays  and  makes  offerings  to  their  spirits. 

117.  Policy  of  Non-Intercourse. — The  Chinese  have  always 
been  a  very  self-satisfied  and  exclusive  people.  They  have  jeal- 
ously excluded  foreigners  and  outside  influence  from  their  coun- 
try. The  Great  Wall  with  which  they  have  hedged  in  their 
country  on  the  north  is  the  symbol  of  their  policy  of  isolation. 
Doubtless  this  characteristic  of  the  Chinese  has  been  fostered  by 


I06  INDIA  AND   CHINA 

their  geographical  isolation  ;  for  great  mountain  barriers  and  wide 
deserts  cut  the  country  off  from  communication  with  the  rest  of 
the  Asiatic  continent.  And  then  their  reverence  for  antiquity  has 
rendered  them  intolerant  of  innovation  and  change.  Hence,  in 
part,  the  unwillingness  of  the  Chinese  to  admit  into  their  country 
railroads,  telegraphs,  and  other  modern  improvements.  For  them 
to  adopt  these  new-fangled  inventions  would  be  like  our  adopting 
a  new  religion.  Such  a  departure  from  the  ways  and  customs 
of  the  past  has  in  it,  to  their  way  of  thinking,  something  akin  to 
disrespect  and  irreverence  for  ancestors. 

References  (Modern).  —  For  India :  Ragozin,  The  Story  of  Vedic  India. 
Hunter, /i  Brief  History  of  the  Indian  Peoples,  chaps,  i-vi,  Dutt,  The 
Civilization  of  India  (Primer).  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhist  India,  and  Bud- 
dhism, its  History  and  Literature.  Warren,  Biiddhism  iit  Translation. 
Hopkins,  The  Religions  of  India.  Arnold,  The  Light  of  Asia.  This  is 
Buddhism  idealized. 

For  China  :  Williams,  A  History  of  China,  being  the  historical  chapters 
of  the  author's  The  Middle  Kingdom.  Legge,  The  Religions  of  China. 
Douglas,  China.  Giles,  A  History  of  Chinese  Literature.  Martin,  The 
Lore  of  Cathay.     Doolittle,  Social  Life  of  the  Chinese. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  For  India:  i.  The  Vedas.  2.  Early  Indian 
architecture.  3.  The  suttee.  4.  The  caste  system.  5.  The  doctrine  of 
transmigration.     6.  The  rise  of  Buddhism. 

For  China:  i.  Confucius.  2.  The  Great  Wall.  3.  The  competitive  ex- 
aminations. 4.  The  cardinal  virtues.  5,  Chinese  writing.  6.  The  govern- 
ment.    7.  Manners  and  customs. 


Part   II  —  Greece 

CHAPTER   XI 
THE  LAND  AND   THE  PEOPLE 

1 1 8.  Hellas. — The  ancient  people  whom  we  call  Greeks 
called  themselves  Hellenes  and  their  land  Hellas.  But  this  term 
"  Hellas  "  as  used  by  the  ancient  Greeks  embraced  much  more 
than  modern  Greece.  "  Wherever  were  Hellenes  there  was 
Hellas."  Thus  the  name  included  not  only  Greece  proper  and 
the  islands  of  the  adjoining  seas,  but  also  the  Hellenic  cities  in 
Asia  Minor,  in  Southern  Italy,  and  in  Sicily,  besides  many  other 
Greek  settlements  scattered  up  and  down  the  Mediterranean  and 
along  the  shores  of  the  Hellespont  and  the  Euxine. 

Yet  Greece  proper  was  the  real  home  land  of  the  Hellenes  and 
the  actual  center  of  Greek  life  and  culture.  Therefore  it  will  be 
necessary  for  us  to  gain  at  least  some  slight  knowledge -of  the 
divisions  and  physical  features  of  this  country  before  passing  to 
the  history  of  the  people  themselves. 

119.  Divisions  of  Greece.  —  Long  arms  of  the  sea  divide  the 
Greek  peninsula  into  three  parts,  called  Northern,  Central,  and 
Southern  Greece.  The  southern  portion,  joined  to  the  mainland 
by  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth,  and  now  generally  known  as  the 
Morea,  was  called  by  the  ancients  the  Peloponnesus ;  that  is,  the  ^^J\^u 
Island  of  Pelops,  from  its  fabled  colonizer. 

Northern  Greece  included  the  ancient  districts  of  Thessaly  and 
Epirus.  Thessaly  consists  mainly  of  a  large  and  beautiful  valley^ 
walled  in  on  all  sides  by  rugged  mountains.  On  its  northern 
edge,  between  Olympus  and  Ossa,  is  a  beautiful  glen,  named  by 
the  ancients  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  the  only  practicable  pass  by 

107 


io8 


THE   LAND   AND   THE    PEOPLE 


which  the  plain  of  Thessaly  can  be  entered  from  the  side  of  the 
sea.  The  district  of  Epinis  stretched  along  the  Ionian  Sea  on 
the  west.  In  the  deep  recesses  of  its  forests  of  oak  was  situated 
the  renowned  Dodonean  oracle  of  Zeus. 

Central  Greece  was  divided  into  eleven  districts,  among  which 
were  Phocis,  Bceotia,  and  Attica.  In  Phocis  was  the  city  of 
Delphi,  famous  for  its  oracle  and  temple ;  in  Boeotia,  the  city  of 
TheB^s ;  and  in  Attica  was  the  brilliant  Athens.  The  Attic  land, 
as^^v^-shall  learn,  was'lhe  central  point  of  Greek  history. 

The  chief  districts  of  Southern  Greece  were  Corinthia,  Arcadia, 
Achaea,  Argolis,  Laconia,  Messenia,  and  Elis. 

The  main  part  of  Corinthia  formed  the  isthmus  uniting  the 
Peloponnesus  to  Central  Greece.  Its  chief  city  was  Corinth,  the 
gateway  of  the  peninsula. 

Arcadia,  sometimes  called  "  the  Switzerland  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesus," formed  the  heart  of  the  peninsula.     This  region  consists 

/p^.  of   broken   uplands   shut 

li\AM  ii^  from  the  surrounding 
coast  plains  by  irregular 
mountain  walls.  The  in- 
habitants of  this  district, 
because  thus  isolated, 
were,  in  the  general  intel- 
lectual movement  of  the 
Greek  race,  left  far  behind 
the  dwellers  in  the  more 
open  and  favored  portions 
of  Greece.  It  is  the  rustic, 
simple  life  of  the  Arca- 
dians that  has  given  the 
term  "Arcadian"  its 
meaning  of  pastoral  sim- 
FiG.  63.  —  The  Lions'  Gate  at  Mycen^    nliritv 

Achaea  was  a  strip  of  land  lying  upon  the  Corinthian  Gulf.  Its 
cities  did  not  take  any  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  Greece  until 
the  most  brilliant  period  of  her  history  was  past  (sec.  304). 


The  Lions'  Gate  at  Mycen^ 


DIVISIONS   OF  GREECE 


109 


Argolis  formed  a  tongue  of  land  jutting  out  into  the  ^gean. 
This  region  is  noted  as  the  home  of  an  early  prehistoric  culture, 
and  holds  to-day  the  remains  of  cities  —  Mycenae  and  Tiryns  — 
the  kings  of  which  built  great  palaces,  possessed  vast  treasures  in 
gold  and  silver,  and  held  wide  sway  centuries  before  Athens  had 
made  for  herself  a  name  and  place  in  history.  The  chief  city  of 
the  region  during  the  historic  period  was  Argos. 

Laconia,  or  Lacedaemon,  embraced  a  considerable  part  of  the 
southern  portion  of  the  Peloponnesus.     A  prominent  feature  of 


Fig.  64.  —  The  Plain  of  Olympia.      (From  Boetticher's  Olympia) 
The  valley  of  the  Alpheus  in  Elis,  where  were  held  the  celebrated  Olympian  games 

the  physical  geography  of  this  region  is  a  deep  river  valley,  —  the 
valley  of  the  Eurotas,  —  from  whence  arose  the  descriptive  name, 
"  Hollow  Lacedaemon."  This  district  was  ruled  by  the  city  of 
Sparta,  the  great  rival  of  Athens. 

Messenia  was  a  rich  and  fruitful  region  lying  to  the  west  of 
Laconia.  It  nourished  a  vigorous  race,  who  in  early  times  carried 
on  a  stubborn  struggle  with  the  Spartans,  by  whom  they  were 
finally  overpowered. 

Elis,  a  district  on  the  western  side  of  the  Peloponnesus,  is 
chiefly  noted  as  the  consecrated  land  which  held  Olympia,  the 


no        THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

great  assembling  place  of  the  Greeks  on  the  occasion  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  most  famous  of  their  national  festivals,  —  the 
so-called  Olympian  games. 

120.  Mountains.  —  The  Cambunian  Mountains  form  a  lofty  wall 
along  a  considerable  reach  of  the  northern  frontier  of  Greece, 
shutting  out  at  once  the  cold  winds  and  hostile  races  from  the 
north.  Branching  off  at  right  angles  to  these  mountains  is  the 
Pindus  range,  which  runs  south  into  Central  Greece. 

On  the  northern  border  of  Thessaly  is  Mount  Olympus,  the 
most  celebrated  mountain  of  the  peninsula.  The  ancient  Greeks 
thought  it  the  highest  mountain  in  the  world  (it  is  about  9700  feet 
in  height),  and  beUeved  that  its  cloudy  summit  was  the  abode  of 
the  gods. 

South  of  Olympus,  close  by  the  sea,  are  Ossa  and  Pelion,  cele- 
brated in  fable  as  the  mountains  which  the  giants,  in  their  war  against 
the  gods,  piled  one  upon  another  in  order  to  scale  Olympus. 

Parnassus  and  Helicon,  in  Central  Greece,  —  beautiful  moun- 
tains clad  with  trees  and  vines  and  filled  with  fountains,  —  were 
beUeved  to  be  the  favorite  haunts  of  the  Muses.  Near  Athens  are 
Hymettus,  praised  for  its  honey,  and  PenteHcus,  renowned  for  its 
marbles. 

The  Peloponnesus  is  rugged  with  mountains  that  radiate  in  all 
directions  from  the  central  country  of  Arcadia. 

121.  The  Rivers  and  Lakes  of  the  Land.  —  Greece  has  no  rivers 
large  enough  to  be  of  service  to  commerce.  Most  of  the  streams 
are  scarcely  more  than  winter  torrents.  Among  the  most  impor- 
tant streams  are  the  Peneus,  which  drains  the  Thessalian  plain ; 
the  Alpheus  in  Elis,  on  the  banks  of  which  the  Olympian  games 
were  celebrated ;  and  the  Eurotas,  which  threads  the  central  val- 
ley of  Laconia.  The  Ihssus  and  Cephissus  are  little  streams  of 
Attica  which  owe  their  renown  chiefly  to  the  poets. 

The  lakes  of  Greece  are  in  the  main  scarcely  more  than  stag- 
nant pools,  the  back  water  of  spring  freshets.  In  this  respect, 
Greece,  though  a  mountainous  country,  presents  a  striking  con- 
trast to  Switzerland,  whose  numerous  and  deep  lakes  form  one  of 
the  most  attractive  features  of  Swiss  scenery. 


ISLANDS   ABOUT    GREECE  III 

122.  Islands  about  Greece. — Very  much  of  the  history  of 
Greece  is  intertwined  with  the  islands  that  lie  about  the  main- 
land. On  the  east,  in  the  ^gean  Sea,  are  the  Cyclades,  so 
called  because  they  form  an  irregular  circle  round  the  sacred 
island  of  Delos,  where  was  a  very  celebrated  shrine  of  Apollo. 
Between  the  Cyclades  and  Asia  Minor  lie  the  Sporades,  which 
islands,  as  the  name  implies,  are  sown  irregularly  over  that 
portion  of  the  ^gean.  They  are  simply  the  peaks  of  submerged 
mountain  ranges,  which  may  be  regarded  as  a  continuation 
beneath  the  sea  of  the  mountains  of  Central  Greece. 

Just  off  the  coast  of  Attica  is  a  large  island  called  by  the 
ancients  Euboea,  and  known  to-day  as  Euvia.  Close  to  the  Asian 
shores  are  the  large  islands  of  Lemnos,  Lesbos,  Chios,  Samos, 
and  Rhodes. 

In  the  Mediterranean,  midway  between  Greece  and  Egypt,  is 
the  large  island  of  Crete,  noted  in  legend  for  its  Labyrinth  and  its 
legislator  Minos.  To  the  west  of  Greece  he  the  Ionian  Islands, 
the  largest  of  which  was  called  Corcyra,  now  Corfu.  The  rugged 
island  of  Ithaca  was  the  birthplace  of  Odysseus  (Ulysses),  the 
hero  of  the  Odyssey. 

From  the  waters  of  the  Saronic  Gulf,  within  sight  of  the  Attic 
shore,  rises  the  island  of  yEgina,  the  inhabitants  of  which  were 
long  the  rivals  of  the  Athenians.  In  the  same  gulf,  hugging  the 
Attic  coast,  is  Salamis,  whose  name  commemorates  a  great  sea 
fight  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Persians  (sec.  212). 

123.  Climate  and  Productions. — There  is  a  great  variety  in 
the  climate  of  Greece.  In  the  north  and  upon  the  uplands  the 
climate  is  temperate,  in  the  south  semitropical.  The  slopes  of 
the  mountains  in  Northern  Greece  and  in  Arcadia  support  forests 
of  beech,  oak,  and  pine ;  while  the  southern  districts  of  the 
Peloponnesus  nourish  the  date  palm,  the  citron,  and  the  orange. 
Attica,  midway  between  the  north  and  the  south,  is  the  home  of 
the  olive  and  the  fig.  The  vine  grows  luxuriantly  in  almost  every 
part  of  the  land.     Wheat,  barley,  grapes,^  and  oil  are  to-day,  as 

1  At  the  present  time  the  seedless  grape  ("  currant")  is  the  most  profitable  of  all 
exports. 


112  THE   LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE 

they  were  in  ancient  times,  the  chief  products  of  the  country ;  but 
flax,  honey,  and  the  products  of  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep  have 
always  formed  a  considerable  part  of  the  economic  wealth  of  the 
land. 

The  hills  of  Greece  supphed  many  of  the  useful  metals.  The 
ranges  of  the  Taygetus,  in  Laconia,  yielded  iron,  in  which  the 
Lacedaemonians  became  skillful  workers.  Euboea  furnished  copper, 
which  created  a  great  industry.  The  hills  of  Southern  Attica  con- 
tained silver  mines,  which  helped  the  Athenians  to  build  their 
earliest  navy  (sec.  206,  n.  4).  Mountains  near  Athens  and  the 
hills  of  the  island  of  Paros  afforded  beautiful  marbles,  which  made 
possible  the  creation  of  such  splendid  temples  as  the  Parthenon. 

124.  Influence  of  the  Land  upon  the  People. — The  physical 
geography  of  a  country  has  much  to  do  with  molding  the  char- 
acter and  shaping  the  history  of  its  people.  Mountains,  isolating 
neighboring  communities  and  shutting  out  conquering  races,  foster 
the  spirit  of  local  patriotism  and  preserve  freedom;  the  sea, 
inviting  abroad  and  rendering  intercourse  with  distant  countries 
easy,  awakens  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  develops  commercial 
enterprise. 

Now  Greece  is  at  once  a  mountainous  and  a  maritime  country. 
Mountain  walls  fence  it  off  into  a  great  number  of  isolated  dis- 
tricts, and  this  is  one  reason  probably  why  the  Greeks  formed  so 
many  small  independent  states,  and  never  could  be  brought  to 
feel  or  to  act  as  a  single  nation.^ 

The  Grecian  peninsula  is,  moreover,  by  deep  arms  and  bays  of 
the  sea,  converted  into  what  is  in  effect  an  archipelago.  Few 
spots  in  Greece  are  over  forty  miles  from  the  sea.  Hence  its 
people  were  early  tempted  to  a  seafaring  Hfe — tempted  to  follow 
what  Homer  calls  the  ''wet  paths"  of  Ocean,  to  see  whither  they 
might  lead.     Intercourse  with  the  old  civilizations  of  the  Orient 

2  The  history  of  the  cantons  of  Switzerland  affords  a  somewhat  similar  illustration 
of  the  influence  of  the  physical  features  of  a  country  upon  the  political  fortunes  of  its 
inhabitants.  But  we  must  be  careful  not  to  exaggerate  the  influence  of  geography 
upon  Greek  history.  For  the  root  of  feelings  and  sentiments  which  were  far  more 
potent  than  geographical  conditions  in  keeping  the  Greek  cities  apart,  see  sees.  136 
and  137. 


THE   HELLENES  1 13 

—  which  Greece  faces  ^  —  stirred  the  naturally  quick  and  versatile 
Greek  intellect  to  early  and  vigorous  thought.  The  islands  strewn 
with  seeming  carelessness  through  the  ^gean  Sea  were  "  stepping- 
stones,"  which  invited  intercourse  between  the  settlers  of  Greece 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  delightful  coast  countries  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  thus  blended  the  life  and  history  of  the  opposite  shores. 

How^  much  the  sea  did  in  developing  enterprise  and  intelli- 
gence in  the  cities  of  the  maritime  districts  of  Greece  is  shown 
by  the  contrast  which  the  advancing  culture  of  these  regions 
presented  to  the  lagging  civilization  of  the  peoples  of  the  interior 
districts ;  as,  for  instance,  those  of  Arcadia, 

Again,  the  beauty  of  Grecian  scenery  inspired  many  of  the  most 
striking  passages  of  the  Greek  poets ;  and  it  is  thought  that  the 
exhilarating  atmosphere  and  brilliant  skies  of  Attica  were  not  un- 
related to  the  lofty  achievements  of  the  Athenian  intellect.  Indeed, 
we  may  almost  assert  that  the  wonderful  culture  of  Greece  was  the 
product  of  a  land  of  incomparable  and  varied  beauties  acting  upon 
a  people  singularly  sensitive  to  the  influences  of  nature. 

125.  The  Hellenes.  —  The  historic  inhabitants  of  the  land  we' 
have  described  were  called  by  the  Romans  Greeks ;   but,  as  we 
have  already  learned,  they  called  themselves  Hellenes,  from  their 
fabled  ancestor  Hellen.     They  were  divided  into  four  famihes  or 
tribes,  —  the  Achaeans,  the  lonians,  the  Dorians,  and  the  ^Tlolians. 

The  Achaeans  are  represented  by  the  Greek  legends  as  being 
the  dominant  race  in  the  Peloponnesus  in  prehistoric  times.  They 
then  overshadowed  to  such  a  degree  all  the  other  tribes  as  to  cause 
their  name  to  be  frequently  used  for  the  Greeks  in  general. 

The  lonians  w^ere  a  many-sided,  enterprising  people,  who, 
speaking  broadly,  were  given  to  trade  and  commerce,  and  lived 
much  upon  the  sea.  They  attained  unsurpassed  excellence  in 
art,  Hterature,  and  philosophy.  The  most  noted  Ionian  city  was 
Athens,  whose  story  is  a  large  part  of  the  history  of  Hellas. 

The  Dorians,  in  their  typical  communities,  present  themselves 
to  us  as  a  conservative,  practical,  and  unimaginative  race.     Their 

3  That  is  to  say,  the  most  and  best  of  her  harbors  are  on  her  eastern  shore. 
Greece  thus  turns  her  back,  as  it  were,  to  Italy. 


114  THE   LAND   AND   THE    PEOPLE 

speech  and  their  art  were  both  alike  without  ornament.  Their 
education  was  almost  wholly  gymnastic  and  military.  The  most 
important  city  founded  by  them  was  Sparta,  the  rival  of  Athens. 

In  the  different  aptitudes  and  contrasted  tendencies  of  these 
two  great  Hellenic  famiUes  lay,  in  the  words  of  the  historian 
Ranke,  "  the  fate  of  Greece."  They  divided  Hellas  into  two 
rival  parties,  which,  through  their  jealousies  and  contentions, 
finally  brought  to  utter  ruin  all  the  bright  poHtical  hopes  and 
promises  of  the  Hellenic  race. 

The  /Eolians  formed  a  rather  ill-defined  division.  In  historic 
times  the  name  is  often  made  to  include  all  Hellenes  not  enu- 
merated as  lonians  or  Dorians. 

These  several  tribes,  united  by  bonds  of  language  and  religion, 
always  regarded  themselves  as  members  of  a  single  family.  They 
were  proud  of  their  ancestry,  and  as  exclusive  almost  as  the 
Hebrews.     All  non-Hellenic  people  they  called  Barbarians} 

When  the  mists  of  antiquity  first  rise  from  Greece,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  we  discover  the  several 
famiUes  of  the  Hellenic  race  in  possession  of  Greece  proper,  of 
the  islands  of  the  ^gean,  and  of  the  western  coasts  of  Asia 
Minor.  Respecting  their  prehistoric  migrations  and  settlements 
we  have  little  or  no  certain  knowledge. 

References.  —  Curtius,^  vol.  i,  pp.  9-46.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  ii, 
pp.  141-163.  Abbott,  vol.  i,  chaps,  i  and  ii.  Holm,  vol.  i,  chaps,  ii  and 
xiv.  DuNCKER,  vol.  i,  pp.  1-33.  TozER,  Classical  Geography  (Primer). 
Richardson,  Vacation  Days  in  Greece.  Dr.  Richardson  was  for  many 
years  Director  of  the  American  School  of  Archaeology  at  Athens.  His 
delightful  sketches  of  excursions  to  interesting  historical  sites  will  give  a 
much  better  idea  of  the  physical  features  of  Greece  than  all  the  formal 
descriptions  of  the  geographers.  Butcher,  Sonie  Aspects  of  the  Greek 
Genius ;  for  the  mature  student. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Greece  as  Europe  in  miniature.  2.  Geog- 
raphy and  race  as  factors  in  history.  3.  Characteristics  of  the  Greeks.  See 
Butcher. 

4  At  first  this  term  meant  scarcely  more  than  "  unintelligible  folk  "  ;  but  later  it 
came  to  express  aversion  and  contempt. 

5  We  shall  throughout  cite  the  standard  extended  histories  of  Greece  and  of 
Rome  by  giving  merely  the  author's  name  with  volume  and  page. 


^ 


Fig.  65.  —  Combat  between  Achilles  and  Hector,    (From  a  vase) 


CHAPTER  XII 


PREHISTORIC  TIMES  ACCORDING  TO  GREEK  ACCOUNTS  1 


126.  Character  of  the  Legends.  —  The  real  history  of  the  Greeks 
does  not  begin  before  the  eighth  century  b.c.  All  that  lies  back 
of  that  date  is  an  inseparable  mixture  of  myth,  legend,  and  fact. 
Yet  this  shadowy  period  forms  the  background  of  Greek  history, 
and  we  cannot  understand  the  Greeks  of  historic  times  without 
some  knowledge,  at  least,  of  what  they  believed  their  ancestors 
had  done  and  had  experienced,  for  these  beliefs  profoundly  in- 
fluenced their  own  conduct. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  war  against  Troy,  namely,  *'  If  not 
itself  a  fact,  the  Trojan  War  became  the  cause  of  innumerable 
facts,"  is  true  of  the  whole  body  of  Greek  legends.  These  tales 
were  recited  by  the  historian,  dramatized  by  the  tragic  poet,  cut 
in  marble  by  the  sculptor,  and  depicted  by  the  painter  on  the 
walls  of  portico  and  temple.  They  thus  constituted  a  very  vital 
part  of  the  education  of  every  Greek,  and  afforded  the  inspiration 
of  many  a  great  and  worthy  deed. 

Therefore,  as  a  sort  of  prelude  to  the  story  we  have  to  tell,  we 
shall  repeat  some  of  the  legends  of  the  Greeks  touching  the 
beginnings  of  civihzation  in  Hellas,  and  respecting  the  labors  and 
achievements  of  some  of  their  greatest  national  heroes.     But  it 

1  The  prehistoric  period  in  Greece  is  now  commonly  designated  as  the  Mycencean 
Age,  for  the  reason  that  Mycenae  in  Argolis  was  formerly  believed  to  have  been  the 
center  of  the  brilliant  Bronze  Age  culture  which  characterized  the  second  millen- 
nium B.C.  in  the  ^Egean  lands.  Recent  discoveries  in  Crete,  however,  suggest  the 
possibility  of  that  island  having  been  the  radiating  point  of  this  civilization. 

"5 


Il6  PREHISTORIC   GREECE 

must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  these  legends  are  not  history. 
Where,  however,  there  seems  to  be  sufficient  ground  to  justify  an 
opinion,  we  shall  suggest  what  may  be  the  grain  of  truth  in  any 
particular  legend,  or  what  part  of  it  may  be  a  dim  though  con- 
fused remembrance  of  actual  events. 

127.  Oriental  Immigrants.  — The  legends  of  the  Greeks  repre- 
sent the  early  growth  of  civilization  among  them  as  having  been 
promoted  by  the  settlement  in  Greece  of  Oriental  immigrants,  who 
brought  with  them  the  arts  and  culture  of  the  different  countries 
of  the  East. 

Thus  from  Egypt,  legend  affirms,  came  Cecrops,  bringing  with 
him  the  arts,  learning,  and  priestly  wisdom  of  the  Nile  valley.  He 
is  represented  as  the  builder  of  Cecropia,  which  became  afterwards 
the  citadel  of  the  illustrious  city  of  Athens. 

From  Phoenicia  Cadmus  brought  the  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
and  founded  the  city  of  Thebes.  The  Phrygian  Pelops,  the  pro- 
genitor of  the  renowned  heroes  Agamemnon  and  Menelaus,  settled 
in  the  southern  peninsula,  which  was  called  after  him  Peloponnesus 
(the  Island  of  Pelops). 

The  nucleus  of  fact  in  all  these  legends  is  probably  this,  —  that 
the  European  Greeks  received  certain  of  the  elements  of  their 
culture  from  the  East.  Without  doubt  they  got  from  thence 
letters,^  a  gift  of  incomparable  value,  and  hints  in  art,  besides 
suggestions  and  facts  in  philosophy  and  science. 

128.  The  Heroes  :  Heracles,  Theseus,  and  Minos.  —  The  Greeks 
believed  that  their  ancestors  were  a  race  of  heroes  of  divine  or 
semi-divine  lineage.  Every  tribe,  district,  city,  and  village  even, 
preserved  traditions  of  its  heroes,  whose  wonderful  exploits  were 
commemorated  in  song  and  story.  Many  of  these  personages 
acquired  national  renown  and  became  the  revered  heroes  of  the 
whole  Greek  race. 

The  heroes  were  doubtless,  in  some  cases,  historical  persons, 
but  so  much  of  myth  and  fable  has  gathered  about  their  names 
that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  that  which  is  really  historical 
from  what  is  purely  fabulous. 

2  See  sec.  93. 


LEGENDS  OF  THE    HEROES 


117 


Among  the  most  noted  of  the  heroes  are  Heracles  (commonly 
called  Hercules),  Theseus,  and  Minos. 

Heracles  was  the  greatest  of  the  national  heroes  of  the  Greeks. 
He  is  represented  as  performing,  besides  various  other  exploits, 
twelve  superhuman  labors,  —  among  which  were  the  slaying  of 
the  Nemean  lion,  the  destruction  of  the  Lernsean  hydra,  the 
cleansing  of  the  stables  of  Augeas,  —  and  as  being  at  last  trans- 
lated from  a  blazing  pyre  to  a  place  among  the  immortal  gods. 

The  myth  of  Heracles  is  made  up  in  part  of  the  very  same 
tales  that  were  told  of  the  Chaldean  hero  Gilgamesh  (sec.  60). 
Through  the  Phoenicians  and  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  these 
stories  found  their  way  to  the  Greeks,  who  ascribed  to  their  own 
Heracles  the  deeds  of  the  Babylonian  hero. 

Theseus,  a  descendant  of  Cecrops,  was  the  favorite  hero  of 
the  Athenians,  being  one  of  their  legendary  kings.  Among  his 
great  works  were  the  slaying  of  the  Minotaur,  —  a  monster  which 


Fig.  66.  —  Battle  between  Greeks  and  Amazons 
(From  a  sarcophagus) 

Minos,  king  of  Crete,  kept  in  a  labyrinth  and  fed  upon  youths 
and  maidens  sent  from  Athens  as  a  forced  tribute,  —  the  defeat 
of  the  Amazons,  a-nd  the  consolidation  of  the  twelve  boroughs  or 
hamlets  of  Attica  into  a  single  state. 

The  legend  of  Theseus  doubtless  contains  a  substantial  kernel 
of  history.  The  consolidation  of  Attica  and  the  founding  of 
Athens  were  certainly  historical  events,  while  the  slaying  of  the 


Il8  PREHISTORIC  GREECE 

Minotaur  may  be  taken  to  symbolize  the  freeing  of  the  Athenians 
from  a  tribute  paid  to  the  kings  of  Crete. 

Minos,  who  has  just  been  mentioned  as  the  king  of  Crete,  was 
made  by  tradition  a  legislator  of  divine  wisdom,  the  suppressor  of 
piracy  in  the  Grecian  seas,  and  the  founder  of  the  first  great 
maritime  state  of  Hellas. 

This  tradition  of  Minos  preserves  the  memory  of  a  Cretan 
kingdom  which  recent  discoveries  have  proved  was  great  and 
powerful  as  early  as  the  seventeenth  century  before  our  era.^ 

129.  The  Argonautic  Expedition.  —  Besides  the  labors  and  ex- 
ploits of  single  heroes,  such  as  we  have  been  naming,  the  legends 
of  the  Greeks  tell  of  various  memorable  enterprises  which  were 
conducted  by  bands  of  heroes.  Among  these  were  the  Argonautic 
Expedition  and  the  Siege  of  Troy. 

The  tale  of  the  Argonauts  is  told  with  many  variations  in  the 
legends  of  the  Greeks.  Jason,  a  prince  of  Thessaly,  with  fifty 
companion  heroes,  among  whom  were  Heracles,  Theseus,  and 
Orpheus,  —  the  latter  a  musician  of  superhuman  skill,  the  music 
of  whose  lyre  moved  trees  and  stones,  —  set  sail  in  "  a  fifty-oared 
galley,"  called  the  Argo  (hence  the  name  Aj-gonauts,  given  to 
the  heroes),  in  search  of  a  ''golden  fleece"  which  was  fabled  to 
be  nailed  to  a  tree  and  watched  by  a  dragon  in  a  grove  on  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Euxine,  —  an  inhospitable  region  of  unknown 
terrors.  The  expedition  was  successful,  and  after  many  wonderful 
adventures  the  heroes  returned  in  triumph  with  the  sacred  relic. 

Different  meanings  have  been  given  to  this  tale.  In  its  later  forms 
we  may  beheve  it  to  commemorate  the  maritime  activity  of  the 
Greeks  of  prehistoric  times  in  the  North  ^gean  and  the  Black  Sea. 

130.  The  Trojan  War  (legendary  date  11 94-1 184  B.C.). — The 
Trojan  War  was  an  event  about  which  gathered  a  great  circle  of 
tales  and  poems,  all  full  of  an  undying  interest  and  fascination. 

Ilios,  or  Troy,  was  a  strong-walled  city  which  had  grown  up  in 
Asia  Minor  just   south   of  the   Hellespont.     The   traditions  tell 

3  The  center  of  this  early  Cretan  culture  was  Cnossus.  Here  have  been  unearthed, 
by  Mr.  A.  J.  Evans,  the  remains  of  a  wonderful,  many-chambered  palace,  which  he 
believes  to  represent  the  Labyrinth  of  the  tradition. 


THE   TROJAN   WAR  1 19 

how  Paris,  son  of  Priam,  king  of  Troy,  visited  the  Spartan  king 
Menelaus,  and  ungenerously  requited  his  hospitahty  by  secretly 
bearing  away  to  Troy  his  wife  Helen,  famous  for  her  rare  beauty. 

All  the  heroes  of  Greece  flew  to  arms  to  avenge  the  wrong. 
A  host  of  a  hundred  thousand  warriors  was  speedily  gathered. 
Agamemnon,  king  of  Mycenae  and  brother  of  Menelaus,  was  cho- 
sen leader  of  the  expedition.  Under  him  were  the  ''  lion-hearted 
Achilles  "  of  Thessaly,  the  "  crafty  Odysseus,"  king  of  Ithaca,  the 
aged  Nestor,  and  many  more,  —  the  most  valiant  heroes  of  all 
Hellas.  Twelve  hundred  galleys  bore  the  gathered  clans  from 
Aulis  across  the  ^gean  to  the  Trojan  shores. 

For  ten  years  the  Greeks  and  their  allies  hold  in  close  siege 
the  city  of  Priam.  On  the  plains  beneath  the  walls  of  the  capi- 
tal the  warriors  of  the  two  armies  fight  in  general  battle  or  con- 
tend in  single  en- 
counter. At  first 
Achilles  is  fore- 
most in  every 
fight;  but  a  fair- 
faced  maiden,  who 

had  fallen  to  him 

,       .  Fig.  67.  —  Battle  at  the  Ships  between  the 

as  a  prize,  having      ^      '  ^  , , .  •  .•     v 

^  ^       Greeks  and  Trojans.     (After  a  vase  painting) 

been  taken  from 

him  by  his  chief,  Agamemnon,  he  is  filled  with  wrath  and  sulks 

in  his  tent.    Though  the  Greeks  are  often  sorely  pressed,  still  the 

angered  hero  refuses  them  his  aid.     At  last,  however,  his  friend 

Patroclus  is  killed   by   Hector,  eldest  son  of  Priam,  and  then 

Achilles  goes  forth  to  avenge  his  death.     In  a  fierce  combat  he 

slays  Hector,  fastens  his  body  to  a  chariot,  and  drags  it  thrice 

round  the  walls  of  Troy. 

These  later  events,  beginning  with  the  wrath  of  Achilles  and 
ending  with  the  funeral  rites  of  Patroclus  and  Hector,  form  the 
subject  of  the  I/iad  of  Homer. 

The  city  is  at  last  taken  through  a  device  of  the  artful  Odys- 
seus, and  is  sacked  and  burned  to  the  ground,  ^neas,  with  his 
aged  father  Anchises  and  a  few  devoted  followers,  escapes,  and 


I20  PREHISTORIC   GREECE 

after  long  wanderings  reaches  the  Italian  land  and  there  becomes 
the  founder  of  the  Roman  race. 

There  is  probably  a  nucleus  of  fact  in  this  the  most  elaborate 
and  interesting  of  the  Grecian  legends.  We  may  beheve  it  to  be 
the  dim  recollection  of  a  prehistoric  conflict  between  the  Greeks 
and  the  natives  of  Asia  Minor,  arising  from  the  attempt  of  the 
former  to  secure  a  foothold  upon  the  coast.  That  there  really  was 
in  prehistoric  times  in  the  Troad  a  city  which  was  the  stronghold 
of  a  powerful  and  rich  royal  race  has  been  placed  beyond  doubt 
by  the  excavations  and  discoveries  of  Dr.  SchUemann  and  others.^ 


'ipy^'^d^'^^^^ 


Fig.  68.  —  Hissarlik,  the  Probable  Site  of  Ancient  Troy* 
(From  a  photograph) 

131.  Return  of  the  Grecian  Chieftains.  — After  the  fall  of  Troy 
the  Grecian  chieftains  and  princes  returned  home.  The  legends 
represent  the  gods  as  withdrawing  their  protection  from  the 
hitherto  favored  heroes,  because  they  had  not  spared  the  altars  of 
the  Trojans.  Consequently  many  of  them  were  driven  in  endless 
wanderings  over  sea  and  land.  Homer's  Odyssey  portrays  the 
sufferings  of  the  "  much-enduring  Odysseus,"  impelled  by  divine 
wrath  to  long  journeyings  through  strange  seas. 

4  Dr.  SchUemann  was  an  enthusiastic  student  of  Homer,  who  beheved  in  the 
poet  as  a  narrator  of  actual  events.  In  the  year  1870  he  began  to  make  excavations 
in  the  Troad  (at  Hissarlik),  on  a  spot  pointed  out  by  tradition  as  the  site  of  ancient 
Troy.  His  faith  was  largely  rewarded.  He  found  the  upper  part  of  the  hill  where 
he  carried  on  his  operations  to  consist  of  the  remains  of  a  succession  of  nine  towns 
or  settlements.  In  the  second  stratum  from  the  bottom  he  found  remains  of  such  a 
character  that  he  was  led  to  believe  that  they  were  the  actual  memorials  of  the  Troy 
of  the  Iliad.  Besides  uncovering  massive  walls  and  gateways  belonging  to  the  defen- 
sive architecture  of  the  place,  and  the  foundations  of  a  palace,  he  exhumed  numerous 
articles  of  archaic  workmanship  in  bronze,  silver,  and  gold,  including  the  so-called 
"  Treasure  of  Priam."  Later  excavations  on  the  spot,  carried  on  by  Dr.  Dorpfeld, 
have  shown  that  not  the  "  second  city  "  but  the  "  sixth  city  "  was  probably  the  one 
whose  siege  and  destruction  is  commemorated  in  the  Iliad. 


RETURN    OF   THE   GRECIAN    CHIEFTAINS       121 


In  some  cases,  according  to  the  tradition,  advantage  had  been 
taken  of  the  absence  of  the  princes,  and  their  thrones  had  been 
usurped.     Thus  in  ArgoHs,  ^gisthus  had  won  the  unholy  love  of 


^«wr7?. 


Fig.  69.  —  Grave  Circle  at  Mycen^.^     (After  Tsoiintas-Manait) 

Clytemnestra,  wife  and  queen  of  Agamemnon,  who  on  his  return 
was  murdered  by  the  guilty  couple.^     In  pleasing  contrast  with 

5  Accepting  as  historically  true  those  legends  of  the  Greeks  which  represent 
Argolis  as  having  in  the  earliest  times  nourished  a  race  of  powerful  rulers,  and 
Mycenae  as  having  been  the  burial  place  of  Agamemnon  and  his  murdered  com- 
panions, Dr.  Schliemann,  made  confident  by  his  wonderful  discoveries  at  Hissarlik, 
began  excavations  at  Mycens  in  the  year  ^,-,<^cr-xr:i^s' 

1876.     He  soon  unearthed  remains  of  an 
even   more   remarkable   character   than 
those  on  the  supposed  site  of  Troy.    The 
most  interesting  of  all  the  discoveries 
made  on  the  spot 
were  several  tombs 
(Fig.  69)  holding  the 
remains  of  nineteen 
bodies,  which  were 
surrounded  by  an  im- 
mense number  of  arti- 
cles   of   gold,    silver, 
and  bronze,  —  golden 
masks  and  breast- 
plates, drinking  cups  of  solid  gold,  bronze  swords  inlaid  with  gold  and  silver,  and 
personal  ornaments  of  every  kind.    There  was  one  hundred  pounds  in  weight  of  gold 
articles  alone.     This  discovery  is  declared  by  Professor  Manatt  to  be"  the  crowning 
historical  revelation  of  our  time."     Dr.  Schliemann  believed  that  he  had  actually 


Fig.  70.  —  Inlaid  Sword  Blades 
FOUND  AT  Mycenae 


122  PREHISTORIC   GREECE 

this  we  have  exhibited  to  us  the  constancy  of  Penelope,  although 
sought  by  many  suitors,  during  the  absence  of  her  husband 
Odysseus. 

132.  The  Dorian  Invasion,  or  the  Return  of  the  Heraclidae 
(legendary  date  1104  B.C.).  —  We  set  the  tradition  of  the  return 
of  the  Heraclidae  apart  from  the  legends  just  detailed,  for  the 
reason  that,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  moment,  it  undoubtedly  contains 
a  large  historical  element. 

The  legend  tells  how  Heracles,  an  Achaean,  in  the  times  before 
the  Trojan  War  ruled  over  the  Peloponnesian  Achseans.  Just 
before  that  event  his  children  were  driven  from  the  land.  Eighty 
years  after  the  war,  the  hundred  years  of  exile  appointed  by  the 
fates  having  expired,  the  descendants  of  the  hero  returned  at  the 
head  of  the  Dorians  from  Northern  Greece,  effected  the  conquest 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  Peloponnesus,  and  established  themselves 
as  masters  in  the  land  that  had  formerly  been  ruled  by  their  semi- 
divine  ancestor. 

This  legend  seems  to  be  a  dim  remembrance  of  a  prehistoric 
invasion  of  the  Peloponnesus  by  the  Dorians  from  the  north  of 
Greece,  and  the  expulsion  or  subjugation  of  the  earlier  Achaean 
population  of  the  peninsula.'^ 

133.  Migrations  to  Asia  Minor. — The  Greek  legends  represent 
that  the  Dorian  invasion  of  the  Peloponnesus  resulted  in  three 

found  the  body  of  Agamemnon,  the  leader  of  the  Greeks  at  Troy,  This  conclusion 
of  enthusiasm  has  not  been  accepted  by  archaeologists ;  but  all  are  agreed  that  the 
ancient  legends,  in  so  far  as  they  represent  Mycenae  as  having  been  in  early  pre- 
Dorian  times  the  seat  of  an  influential  and  wealthy  royal  race,  rest  on  a  basis  of 
actual  fact.  In  the  years  1884-1885  Dr.  SchUemann  made  extensive  excavations  at 
Tiryns,  where  he  laid  bare  the  foundations  of  the  walls  of  the  ancient  citadel  and 
the  ruins  of  an  extensive  palace  like  that  at  Mycenae.  Still  more  recent  diggings  by 
other  archaeologists  have  made  us  more  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  remarkable 
character  of  the  buildings  on  both  of  these  prehistoric  sites. 

6  The  evidence  furnished  by  recent  archaeological  discoveries  certainly  tends  to 
justify  the  conclusion  that  that  prehistoric  civihzation  of  which  Dr.  Schliemann 
and  others  have  brought  to  light  so  many  wonderful  remains,  was,  in  Greece  proper, 
violently  overwhelmed,  as  though  by  a  wave  of  semi-barbarism.  Both  Mycenae  and 
Tiryns  certainly  perished  in  a  great  conflagration.  What  took  place  here  in  the 
Greek  peninsula  a  thousand  years  before  our  era  has  been  likened  to  what  took 
place  in  the  Italian  peninsula  in  the  fifth  century  after  Christ,  when  the  invading 
German  tribes  overwhelmed  the  civilization  of  Rome. 


Plate  V.  —  The  Vaphio  Cups  and  their  Scrolls.     (Cups  from 

photographs;  the  scrolls  drawn  from  facsimiles  of  the  cups) 
Found  in  a  tomb  at  Vaphio,  near  Sparta,  in  1889.     "  The  finest  product  of  the 

goldsmith's  art  left  to  our  wondering  eyes  by  the  Achaean  civilization  of 

Greece"  {Richardson). 


SOCIETY   IN   THE   HEROIC   AGE  123 

distinct  migrations  from  the  mother  land  to  the  shores  of  Asia 
Minor  and  the  adjoining  islands. 

The  northwestern  shore  of  Asia  Minor  was  settled  mainly  by 
^olian  emigrants  from  Boeotia.  The  neighboring  island  of  Lesbos 
became  the  home  and  center  of  ^olian  culture  in  poetry  and  music. 

The  coast  to  the  south  of  the  Cohans  was  occupied  by  Ionian 
emigrants,  who,  uniting  with  their  Ionian  kinsmen  already  set- 
tled upon  that  shore,  built  up  twelve  splendid  cities  (Ephesus, 
Miletus,  etc.),  which  finally  united  to  form  the  celebrated  Ionian 
confederacy. 

South  of  the  lonians,  all  along  the  southwestern  shore  of  Asia 
Minor,  the  Dorians  established  their  colonies.  They  also  settled 
the  important  islands  of  Cos  and  Rhodes,  and  conquered  and 
colonized  Crete. 

These  traditions  doubtless  preserve  the  memory  of  a  great  shift- 
ing of  the  population  of  Greece  caused  by  the  incoming  of  the 
conquering  Dorian  race.  The  legends  of  the  various  settlements 
represent  them  as  having  been  effected  in  a  very  short  period ; 
but  it  is  probable  that  the  movement  embraced  several  centuries, 

—  possibly  a  longer  time  than  has  been  occupied  by  the  English 
race  in  colonizing  the  different  lands  of  the  Western  World. 

With  these  migrations  to  the  Asiatic  shores  the  legendary  age 
of  Greece  comes  to  an  end.  From  this  time  forward  we  tread 
upon  fairly  firm  historical  ground. 

134.  Society  in  the  Heroic  Age  as  pictured  in  the  Homeric  Poems. 

—  The  poems  of  Homer,  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  which  were 
composed  before  historic  times  in  Hellas,^  were  beheved  by  the 
Greeks  not  only  to  give  a  truthful  account  of  events  connected 
with  the  Trojan  enterprise,  but  also  to  reflect  a  faithful  picture  of 
society  in  the  heroic  age.  Hence  it  remains  for  us  to  add  a  few 
words  upon  this  subject,  in  order  to  complete  our  sketch  of  pre- 
historic Hellas  as  it  presented  itself  to  the  imagination  of  a  Greek 
of  the  historic  period. 

7  The  Homeric  poems,  we  may  believe,  were  composed  by  bards  in  Ionia,  where 
the  descendants  of  the  fugitives  from  the  Greek  peninsula  at  the  time  of  the  Dorian 
invasion  (sec.  132)  preserved  traditions  of  the  glories  of  the  Mycenaean  culture  which 
that  invasion  had  overwhelmed  in  European  Greece. 


124  PREHISTORIC   GREECE 

The  Homeric  poems  represent  the  Greeks  in  the  heroic  age 
as  ruled  by  hereditary  kings  of  semi-divine  or  superhuman  Hneage. 
The  Iliad  says,  "The  rule  of  many  is  not  a  good  thing :  let  there 
be  one  leader  only,  one  king,  him  to  whom  Zeus  has  given  the 
scepter  and  guardian  authority,  that  he  may  rule."  ^  The  king 
was  at  once  the  priest,  the  judge,  and  the  military  leader  of  his 
people.  He  was  expected  to  prove  his  divine  right  to  rule  by 
his  courage,  strength,  wisdom,  and  eloquence.  When  he  ceased 
to  display  these  quahties,  "  the  scepter  departed  from  him." 

The  king  was  surrounded  by  a  council  of  chiefs  or  nobles. 
This  council,  however,  was  simply  an  advisory  body.  The  king 
listened  to  what  the  nobles  had  to  say  upon  any  measure  he  might 
propose,  and  then  acted  according  to  his  own  will  or  judgment, 
restrained  only  by  the  time-honored  customs  of  the  community. 

Next  to  the  council  of  the  chiefs  there  was  a  general  assembly, 
called  the  Agora,  made  up  of  all  the  common  freemen.  The  mem- 
bers of  this  body  could  not  take  part  in  any  debate,  nor  could  they 
vote  upon  any  question.  They  were  called  together  to  hear  matters 
discussed  by  the  king  and  his  chiefs,  that  they  might  know  what 
was  resolved  upon,  and  perhaps  learn  the  arguments  for  and  against 
the  resolution.  This  body,  so  devoid  seemingly  of  all  authority  in 
the  Homeric  age,  was  destined  to  become  the  all-powerful  popular 
assembly  in  the  democratic  cities  of  historic  Greece. 

Of  the  condition  of  the  common  freemen  we  know  but  little  : 
the  legendary  tales  were  concerned  chiefly  with  the  kings  and  the 
nobles.  We  are  certain,  however,  that  the  well-to-do  class  owned 
their  farms  and  cultivated  them  with  their  own  hands,  and  that 
the  poorer  class  labored  for  hire  on  the  estates  of  the  nobles. 
Slavery  existed,  but  the  slaves  did  not  constitute  as  numerous  a 
class  as  they  became  in  historic  times,  nor  do  they  seem  in  general 
to  have  been  treated  harshly. 

In  the  family  the  wife  held  a  much  more  dignified  and  honored 
position  than  that  accorded  her  in  later  times.  The  charming  story 
of  the  constant  Penelope,  which  we  find  in  the  Odyssey,  assures  us 
that  the  Homeric  age  cherished  a  chivalric  feeling  for  woman. 

8  ii.  203,  206. 


SOCIETY    IN    THE    HEROIC  AGE  125 

In  all  ranks  of  society  life  was  marked  by  a  sort  of  patriarchal 
simplicity.  Manual  labor  was  not  yet  thought  to  be  degrading. 
Odysseus  constructs  his  own  house  and  raft,  and  boasts  of  his  skill 
in  swinging  the  scythe  and  guiding  the  plow.  Spinning  and  weav- 
ing were  the  chief  occupations  of  the  women  of  all  classes. 

One  pleasing  and  prominent  virtue  of  the  age  was  hospitality. 
There  being  no  public  inns,  a  sort  of  gentle  necessity  forced 
to  the  entertainment  of  wayfarers.  The  reception  accorded  the 
stranger  was  the  same  simple  and  open-hearted  hospitality  that 
the  Arab  sheik  of  to-day  extends  to  the  traveler  whom  chance 
brings  to  his  tent. 

But  while  hospi- 
table, the  nobles  of 
the  heroic  age  were 
often  cruel,  violent, 
and  treacherous. 
Homer  represents  his 
heroes  as  perpetrat- 
ing without  a  blush 
all  sorts  of  frauds  and 

villainies.    Piracy  was 

,        ,  Fig.  71.  —  Gallery  in  the  South  Wall 

considered  an  honor-  ^^  Tiryns 

able  occupation.   "It  ,,  ^.         .     ^  ,,  ,  „      ...   ... 

'■  "  Tiryns  the  strong-walled."  —  /had,  11.  559 

was  customary  in  wel- 
coming a  stranger  to  ask  him  whether  his  object  in  traveling  was 
to  enrich  himself  by  piracy,  just  as  we  might  to-day  ask  a  person 
whether  his  object  be  to  enrich  himself  by  mercantile  speculation." 
Architecture  is  represented  as  having  made  considerable  advance. 
The  cities  are  walled,  and  the  palaces  of  the  kings  possess  a  certain 
barbaric  splendor.  Coined  money  is  apparently  unknown,  wealth 
being  reckoned  chiefly  in  flocks  and  herds  and  in  uncoined  metals. 
The  poems  make  no  certain  mention  of  the  art  of  writing,  but 
give  glowing  descriptions  of  sculptures  of  marvelous  workmanship. 
They  represent  the  Greeks  as  already  skilled  in  shipbuilding,  yet 
as  possessing  no  definite  knowledge  of  the  Mediterranean  beyond 
Greece  proper  and  the  neighboring  islands  and  shores. 


r^--     ^^T-'^^'^^^- 


126  PREHISTORIC  GREECE 

References.  —  It  is  difficult  to  give  references  on  the  subject  of  this 
chapter,  for  the  reason  that  Greek  mythology  is  generally  dealt  with  as  a 
whole,  no  effort  being  made  to  separate  from  the  mass  of  stories  of  the 
gods  and  heroes  those  which  we  may  term  historical  legends,  —  that  is,  those 
which  profess  to  deal  with  the  experiences  and  deeds  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  historic  Greeks.  However,  the  following  works,  after  the  Jliad  and 
Odyssey  (Bryant's  translation),  will  be  found  useful  in  the  present  connec- 
tion. CuRTius,  vol.  i,  pp.  47-78.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  i,  pp.  309- 
469.  Abbott,  vol.  i,  chap,  v ;  on  the  Homeric  poems  and  the  Homeric 
society.  Holm,  vol.  i,  chaps,  iii-x.  Seemann,  The  Mythology  of  Greece 
and  Rome.  CHURCH,  Stories  from  Homer  and  Gi-eek  Story  and  Song ; 
and  ZiMMERN,  Old  Tales  from  Greece,  are  for  youthful  readers.  Gayley, 
Classic  Myths  in  English  Literature  ;  chaps,  xvii-xxvii  give  the  tales  of  the 
older  and  the  younger  Greek  heroes,  including  the  legends  of  the  Argonauts, 
the  Seven  against  Thebes,  and  the  Trojan  War, 

The  following  works  deal  with  the  archaeological  matters  covered  by 
the  footnotes  of  this  chapter:  Schliemann,  Troy  audits  Remains  (1875)  5 
Mycena  (1878);  Ilios  (1881) ;  Troja  (1884);  and  Tiryns  (1885).  For  an 
admirable  summary  of  all  these  works  of  Dr.  Schliemann's  and  a  scholarly 
estimate  of  the  historical  import  of  his  discoveries,  see  Schuchhardt, 
Schliei?iann'' s  Excavations.  Diehl,  Excursions  in  Greece;  an  account  of 
the  results  of  excavations  at  Mycenae,  Tiryns,  and  on  other  sites  in  Greece. 
Gardner,  Neiv  Chapters  in  Greek  History,  chaps,  i-v ;  compares  the  Greek 
legends  with  recent  archaeological  discoveries  and  'discusses  the  question 
whether  or  not  these  discoveries  may  be  regarded  as  a  verification  in 
any  degree  of  the  legends.  Tsountas  and  Manatt,  The  Mycenccan  Age. 
Hall,  The  Oldest  Civilization  of  Greece.  Ridgeway,  The  Early  Age  of 
Greece,  2  vols. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  Schliemann's  Excavations  at  Mycenae. 

2.  The  centers  and  the  character  of  the  culture  of  the  Mycenaean  Age. 

3.  Theories  respecting  the  race  represented  by  the  so-called  Mycenaean 
civiUzation.  4.  The  shield  of  Achilles.  5.  The  exploits  of  Perseus. 
6.  Comparison  of  archaeological  researches  and  discoveries  in  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  and  in  the  ^gean  lands. 


Fig.  72. —  Fifty-Oared  Greek  Boat.     (After  a  vase  painting) 


CHAPTER   XIII 
THE  INHERITANCE   OF   THE  HISTORIC   GREEKS 

135.  Introductory.  —  We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter 
what  the  Greeks  of  the  historic  age  beUeved  respecting  the  life 
and  doings  of  their  forefathers  in  prehistoric  times.  It  is  certain 
that  the  prehistoric  Greeks  did  not  Hve  in  such  a  romantic  world 
as  their  children  imagined,  and  that  they  did  not  perform  all  the 
wonderful  exploits  which  were  attributed  to  them;  yet  it  is  certain 
that  the  Greek  race  before  its  appearance  in  history  had  had  a 
long  and  wonderful  experience.  How  do  we  know  this?  Just 
as  we  know  that  a  man  mature  in  character  and  rich  in  culture 
has  seen  much  of  the  world.  The  Greeks  when  they  appear  in 
history  appear  with  their  heads  and  hands  full  of  those  things 
which  are  alone  the  gift  of  life.  They  possessed  age-marked 
political  and  religious  institutions,  a  wonderfully  copious  language, 
a  rich  and  varied  mythology,  an  unrivaled  epic  literature,  and  an 
art  which  though  undeveloped  was  yet  full  of  promise. 

Therefore  to  complete  our  introduction  to  the  study  of  the 
Greeks  of  historic  times,  we  shall  now  give  a  short  account  of 
their  actual  possessions  when  they  first  appeared  in  the  light  of 
history. 

I.  Political  Institutions 

136.  The  City-State;  its  Elements, — the  Clan,  the  Phratry, 
and  the  Tribe.  —  The  light  that  falls  upon  Greece  in  the  eighth 
and  seventh  centuries  B.C.  shows  the  land  filled  with  cities. 
Respecting  the  nature  of  these  cities  we  must  say  a  word,  for  it 
is  with  them  —  with  cities  —  that  Greek  history  has  to  do. 

In  the  first  place,  each  of  these  cities  was  an  independent,  self- 
governing  community,  like  a  modern  nation.     It  was  a  city-stale. 

127 


128       INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

It  made  war  and  peace  and  held  diplomatic  relations  with  its 
neighbors.     Its  citizens  were  aliens  in  every  other  city. 

In  the  second  place,  these  city-states  were,  as  we  think  of  inde- 
pendent states,  ver^^mall.^  In  most  cases  each  consisted  of 
nothing  more  than  a  single  walled  town  with  a  little  circumjacent 
farming  or  pasture  land.  Sometimes,  however,  the  city-state 
embraced,  besides  the  central  town,  a  large  number  of  smaller 
places.  Thus  the  city-state  of  Athens,  in  historic  times,  included 
all  Attica  with  its  hundred  or  more  villages  and  settlements,  some 
of  which  were  walled  towns.  In  all  other  cases,  however,  the 
outlying  villages,  if  any,  were  so  close  to  the  walled  town  that  all 
their  inhabitants,  in  the  event  of  a  sudden  raid  by  enemies,  could 
get  to  the  city  gates  in  one  or  two  hours  at  most. 

In  the  third  place,  each  of  these  early  cities  was  made  up  of 
a  graded   series  of  smaller  bodies.     At  the   bottom  were  clans/ 
{gentes).     TTKes'e  were^'united'tO'^rm  phratries  or  brotherhoods  ; 
the  phratries  were  united  to  form  tribes ;   and  the  tribes  were 
united  to  form  the  city. 

Of  these  several  bodies  the  smallest,  that  is  the  clan,  was  the 
most  important.^  The  members  of  the  clan  were  bound  together 
not  only  by  the  ties  of  kinship,  but  also,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
members  of  the  phratry  and  of  the  tribe,  by  the  ties  of  religion. 
All  were  the  actual  or  reputed  descendants  of  a  common  ancestor 
whom  they  worshiped  as  a  sort  of  guardian  divinity.  It  was 
only  members  of  these  clans  who  at  first  enjoyed  the  rights  of 
citizenship.^ 

1  There  is  a  limit,  Aristotle  argued,  to  the  size  of  a  city  as  there  is  to  a  plant,  an 
animal,  or  a  ship.  It  should  be  large  enough,  he  maintained,  to  be  "  self-sufficing," 
and  yet  not  too  large  to  be  well  governed.  That  the  government  might  be  good  he 
thought  that  the  city  should  be  small  enough  to  enable  each  citizen  to  knovi^  all  his 
fellow-citizens. 

2  The  clan  was  simply  the  expanded  family ;  for  in  primitive  society  the  family 
as  it  expands  holds  together,  being  united  by  the  worship  of  ancestors,  whereas  in 
advanced  society  as  it  expands  it  disintegrates,  the  several  households  no  longer 
living  together,  but  each  usually  going  its  own  way.  This  forms  a  fundamental 
difference  between  primitive  and  modern  society. 

3  It  was  only  after  a  long  lapse  of  time  that  the  ties  which  bound  together  these 
primitive  family  groups  became  relaxed,  largely  through  a  change  in  the  religious 
beliefs  of  men,  and  that  the  way  was  thus  paved  for  the  entrance  of  strangers  into 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   THE   CITY 


129 


137.  The  Influence  of  the  City  upon  Greek  History.  — We  cannot 
understand  Greek  history  unless  we  get  at  the  outset  a  clear  idea 
of  the  feelings  of  a  Greek  towards  the  city  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  It  was  the  body  in  which  he  Hved,  moved,  and  had 
his  being.  It  was  his  country,  his  fatherland,  for  which  he  lived 
and  for  which  he  died.  Exile  from  his  native  city  was  to  him  a 
fate  scarcely  less  dreaded  than  death.  This  devotion  of  the  Greek 
to  his  city  was  the  sentiment  which  corresponds  to  patriotism 
amongst  us,  only,  being  a  narrower  as  well  as  a  religious  feeling, 
it  was  much  more  intense. 

It  was  this  strong  city  feeling  among  the  Greeks  which  prevented 
them  from  ever  uniting  to  form  a  single  nation.  The  history  of 
Greece  from  first  to  last  is,  in  general,  the  history  of  a  vast  num- 
ber of  independent  cities  wearing  one  another  out  with  their  never- 
ending  disputes  and  wars  arising  from  a  thousand  and  one  petty 
causes  of  rivalry,  jealousy,  and  hatred. 

But  it  was  this  very  thing  that  made  Hfe  in  the  Greek  cities  so 
intense  and  strenuous,  and  that  developed  so  wonderfully  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  Greek  citizen.  There  arose  in  the  Hellenic  cities  a 
rich  and  many-sided  culture,  which  became  the  precious  legacy 
of  Greece  to  the  world  at  large.  In  a  word,  the  wonderful  thing 
which  we  call  Greek  civilization  was  the  flower  and  fruitage  of  the 
city-state. 

II.  Religious  Ideas  and  Institutions 

138.  Ideas  of  the  Greeks  respecting  the  System  of  the  Universe. 

—  Forming  another  important  element  of  the  inheritance  of  the 
historic  Greeks  were  their  religious  ideas  and  institutions.  In 
speaking  of  these  we  shall  begin  with  a  word  respecting  their 
cosmography,  or  their  ideas  in  regard  to  the  system  of  the 
universe. 

the  city.  This  great  revokition,  the  greatest  that  ever  took  place  in  the  society  of 
antiquity,  was  already  in  progress,  both  in  Italy  and  in  Greece,  at  the  opening  of  the 
historical  period,  and  resulted  finally  in  making  property  and  residence  instead  of 
birth  and  worship  the  basis  of  civil  and  pohtical  rights  and  privileges.  See  sees. 
188,  227. 


130 


INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 


The  Greeks  supposed  the  earth  to  be,  as  it  appears,  a  plane, 
circular  in  form  like  a  shield.  Around  it  flowed  the  "  mighty 
strength  of  the  ocean  river,"  a  stream  broad  and  deep,  beyond 
which  on  all  sides  lay  realms  of  Cimmerian  darkness  and  terror. 
The  heavens  were  a  solid  vault,  or  dome,  whose  edge  shut  down 
close  upon  the  earth.  Beneath  the  earth,  reached  by  subter- 
ranean passages,  was  Hades,  a  vast  region,  the  realm  of  departed 


The  World  according  to  Homer 

souls.     Still  beneath  this  was  the  prison  Tartarus,  a  pit  deep  and 
dark,  made  fast  by  strong  gates  of  brass  and  iron. 

The  sun  was  an  archer  god,  borne  in  a  fiery  chariot  up  and 
down  the  steep  pathway  of  the  skies.  Naturally  it  was  imagined 
that  the  regions  in  the  extreme  east  and  west,  which  were  bathed 
in  the  near  splendors  of  the  sunrise  and  the  sunset,  were  lands  of 
delight  and  plenty.  The  eastern  was  the  favored  country  of  the 
Ethiopians,^  a  land  which  even  Zeus  himself  so  loved  to  visit  that 
6  There  was  also  a  western  division  of  these  people. 


THE   OLYMPIAN    COUNCIL 


131 


Fig.  73.  —  Group  of  Gods  and  Goddesses 
(From  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon) 

"  The  chief  gods,  in  striking  contrast  with  the  monstrous 
divinities  of  the  Oriental  mythologies,  had  been  moulded 
by  the  fine  Hellenic  imagination  into  human  forms  of 
surpassing  beauty  and  grace  " 


often  he  was  found  absent  from  Olympus  when  sought  by  suppHants. 
In  the  western  region,  adjoining  the  ocean  stream,  were  the  Isles  of 
the  Blest  (Elysium),  the  abodes  of  the  shades  of  heroes  and  poets.® 

139.  The  Olym- 
pian Council.  —  At 
the  head  of  the 
Greek  pantheon 
there  was  a  council 
of  twelve  members, 
comprising  six  gods 
and  as  many  god- 
desses. The  male 
deities  were  Zeus, 
the  father  of  goSs 
and  men;  Posei- 
don, ruler  of  the 
sea ;  Apollo,  or  Phoebus,  the  god  of  light,  of  music,  and  of  prophecy ; 
Ares,  tliTgoTofwar ;  Hephaestus,  the  deformed  god  of  fire,  and  the 
forger  of  the  thunderbolts  of  feu's ;  Hernies,  the  wing-footed  herald 
of  the  celestials,  the  god  of  invention  and  of  commerce. 

The  female  di- 
vinities were  Her;^,^  ^ 
the  proud  and 
jealous  queen  of 
Zeus ;  Athena,  or 
P  a  11  a  s,  -^"'w"!i  o 
sprang  full-grown 
from  the  forehead 
of  Zeus, — the  god- 
dess of  wisdom 
and  the  patroness 
of  the  domestic 
arts  ;  Artemis,  the 


Fig.  74.  —  The  Carrying  off  of  Persephone  by 
Hades  to  the  Underworld;  her  Leave- 
Taking  of  her  Mother  Demeter 

A  myth  of  the  seasons  connected  with  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries 


*  These  conceptions,  it  will  be  understood,  belong  to  the  early  period  of  Greek  mythol- 
ogy. As  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  Greeks  became  more  extended,  they  modi- 
fied considerably  the  topography  not  only  of  the  upper  but  also  of  the  nether  world. 


132       INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

goddess  of  the  chase ;  Aphrodite^^the  goddess  of  love  and  beauty, 
born  of  the  white  sea  foam ;  Hestia,  the  goddess  of  the  hearth ; 
Demeter/  the  earth  mother,  the  goddess  of  grains  and  harvests.^ 

These'great  deities  were  simply  magnified  human  beings.  They 
give  way  to  fits  of  anger  and  jealousy.  All  the  celestial  council, 
at  the  sight  of  Hephaestus  Hmping  across  the  palace  floor,  burst 
into  "  inextinguishable  laughter  " ;  and  Aphrodite,  weeping,  moves 
all  to  tears.  They  surpass  mortals  rather  in  power  than  in  size  of 
body.  They  can  render  themselves  visible  or  invisible  to  human 
eyes.  Their  food  is  ambrosia  and  nectar ;  their  movements  are 
swift  as  light.  They  may  suffer  pain ;  but  death  can  never  come 
to  them,  for  they  are  immortal.  Their  abode  is  Mount  Olympus 
and  the  airy  regions  above  the  earth. 

140.  The  Delphian  Oracle  and  its  Influence  on  Greek  Life  and 
History.  — The  most  precious  part  perhaps  of  the  religious  herit- 
age of  the  historic  Greeks  from  the  misty  Hellenic  foretime  was 
the  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Delphi. 

The  Greeks  believed  that  in  the  early  ages  the  gods  were  wont 
to  visit  the  earth  and  mingle  with  men.  But  even  in  Homer's 
time  this  familiar  intercourse  was  a  thing  of  the  past, — a  tradition 
of  a  golden  age  that  had  passed  away.  In  historic  times,  though 
the  gods  often  revealed  their  will  and  intentions  through  signs 
and  portents,  still  they  granted  a  more  special  communication  of 

"i  The  cult  or  worship  of  Demeter  and  Persephone  was  connected  with  the  Eleu- 
sinian  mysteries  celebrated  at  Eleusis  in  Attica,  These  secrets  were  so  carefully- 
guarded  that  to  this  day  it  is  not  kno\vn  what  they  really  were.  It  seems,  however, 
that  the  hopeful  doctrine  of  a  future  life  more  real  and  satisfying  than  that  repre- 
sented by  the  popular  religion  was  taught,  or  at  least  suggested,  by  the  symbolism  of 
the  mysteries,  and  that  the  initiated  were  helped  thereby  to  live  better  and  happier  lives, 

8  Besides  the  great  gods  and  goddesses  that  constituted  the  Olympian  Council, 
there  was  an  almost  infinite  number  of  other  deities,  celestial  personages,  and  mon- 
sters neither  human  nor  divine.  Hades  ruled  over  the  lower  realms ;  Dionysus  was 
the  god  of  wine ;  Eros,  of  love ;  Iris  was  the  goddess  of  the  rainbow,  and  the  special 
messenger  of  Zeus ;  Hebe  (goddess)  was  the  cupbearer  of  the  celestials ;  the  goddess 
Nemesis  was  the  punisher  of  crime,  and  particularly  the  queller  of  the  proud  and 
arrogant ;  iEolus  was  the  ruler  of  the  winds,  which  he  confined  in  a  cave  secured  by 
mighty  gates.  There  were  nine  Muses,  inspirers  of  art  and  song.  The  Nymphs  were 
beautiful  maidens,  who  peopled  the  woods,  the  fields,  the  rivers,  the  lakes,  and  the 
ocean.  Three  Fates  allotted  Hfe  and  death,  and  three  Furies  (Eumenides,  or  Erinnyes) 
avenged  crime,  especially  murder  and  sacrilegious  crimes.  Besides  these  there  were 
the  Centaurs,  the  Cyclopes,  the  Harpies,  the  Gorgons,  and  a  thousand  others. 


THE    DELPHIAN    ORACLE 


133 


counsel  through  what  were  known  as  oracles.  These  communi- 
cations, it  was  believed,  were  made  sometimes  by  Zeus,^  but  more 
commonly  by  Apollo.  Not  everywhere,  but  only  in  chosen  places, 
did  these  gods  manifest  their  presence  and  communicate  the  divine 
will.  These  favored  spots  were  called  oracles,  as  were  also  the 
responses  there  received. 

The  most  renowned  of  the  Greek  oracles,  as  we  have  intimated, 
was  that  at  Delphi,  in  Phocis.  Here,  from  a  deep  fissure  in 
the  rocks,  arose  stupefying  vapors,  which  were  thought  to  be  the 
inspiring  breath  of  Apollo.  Over 
this  spot  was  erected  a  temple  in 
honor  of  the  Revealer.  The  com- 
munication was  generally  received 
by  the  Pythia,  or  priestess,  seated 
upon  a  tripod  placed  above  the  ori- 
fice. As  she  became  overpowered 
by  the  vapors,  she  uttered  the  mes- 
sage of  the  god.  These  mutterings 
of  the  Pythia  were  taken  down  by 
attendant  priests,  interpreted,  and 
written  in  hexameter  verse.  Some- 
times the  divine  will  was  communi- 
cated to  the  pious  seeker  by  dreams 
and  visions  granted  him  while  sleep- 
ing in  the  temple  of  the  oracle. 

Some  of  the  responses  of  the  oracle  contained  plain  and  whole- 
some ad\ice ;  but  very  many  of  them,  particularly  those  that 
implied  a  knowledge  of  the  future,  were  made  obscure  and  ingen- 
iously ambiguous,  so  that  they  might  correspond  with  the  event 
however  affairs  should  turn.^'^ 

The  oracle  of  Delphi  gained  a  celebrity  wide  as  the  world ;  it 
was  often  consulted  by  the  monarchs  of  Asia  and  the  people  of 


Fig. 


Apollo 


9  The  oracle  of  Zeus  of  ^\•idest  repute  w-as  that  at  Dodona,  in  Epirus,  where  the 
priests  listened  for  the  voice  of  the  god  in  the  I'ustling  leaves  of  the  sacred  oak. 

10  Thus  Croesus  at  the  time  he  made  vr^x  on  Cyrus  (sec.  96)  v-as  told  in  response 
to  his  inquiry  that  if  he  undertook  the  w-ar  he  would  destroy  a  great  empire.  He 
did,  indeed  —  but  the  empire  was  his  own. 


134      INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

Rome  in  times  of  extreme  danger  and  perplexity.  Among  the 
Greeks  scarcely  any  undertaking  was  entered  upon  without  the 
will  and  sanction  of  the  oracle  being  first  sought. 

Especially  true  was  this  in  the  founding  of  colonies.  Apollo 
was  believed  "  to  take  delight  in  the  founding  of  new  cities." 
No  colony,  it  was  believed,  could  prosper  that  had  not  been  estab- 
lished with  the  sanction  or  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
Delphian  god.^^ 

The  Delphian  oracle,  furthermore,  exerted  a  profound  influence 
upon  Hellenic  unity.  Delphi  was,  in  some  respects,  such  a  reli- 
gious center  of  Hellas  as  papal  Rome  was  of  mediaeval  Europe. 
It  was  the  common  altar  of  the  Greek  race.  By  thus  providing  a 
worship  open  to  all,  Delphi  drew  together  by  bonds  of  religious 
sentiment  and  fraternity  the  numberless  communities  of  Greece, 
and  created,  if  not  a  political,  at  least  a  religious  union  that  em- 
braced the  entire  Hellenic  world. ^^ 

141.  The  Olympian  Games.  —  Another  of  the  most  characteristic 
of  the  religious  institutions  of  the  Greeks  which  they  inherited 
from  prehistoric  times  was  the  sacred  games  celebrated  at  Olym- 
pia  in  EHs,  in  honor  of  the  Olympian  Zeus.  The  origin  of  this 
festival  is  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  tradition;  but  by  the  opening 
of  the  eighth  century  b.c.  it  had  assumed  national  importance. 
In  776  B.C.  a  contestant  named  Coroebus  was  victor  in  the  foot 
race  at  Olympia,  and  as  from  that  time  the  names  of  the  victors 
were  carefully  registered,  that  year  came  to  be  used  by  the  Greeks 
as  the  starting  point  in  their  chronology.  The  games  were  held 
every  fourth  year,  and  the  interval  between  two  successive  festivals 
was  known  as  an  Olympiad.-^^ 

11  The  managers  of  the  oracle,  doubtless  through  the  visitors  to  the  shrine,  kept 
themselves  informed  respecting  the  islands  and  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and 
thus  were  able  to  give  good  advice  to  those  contemplating  the  founding  of  a  new 
settlement. 

1'-^  For  an  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the  oracle  upon  Greek  morality,  read  the 
story  of  Glaucus  (Herodotus,  vi.  86). 

13  The  date  of  an  occurrence  was  given  by  saying  that  it  happened  in  the  first, 
second,  third,  or  fourth  year  of  such  an  Olympiad,  —  the  first,  second,  or  third,  etc. 
This  mode  of  designating  dates,  however,  did  not  come  into  general  use  in  Greece 
before  the  third  century  B.C. 


THE   GRECIAN   GAMES 


135 


The  contests  consisted  of  foot  races,  boxing,  wrestling,  and 
other  athletic  games.  Later,  chariot  racing  was  introduced,  and 
became  the  most  popular  of  all  the  contests.  The  competitors 
must  be  of  Hellenic  race ;  must  have  undergone  special  training 
in  the  gymnasium ;  and  must,  moreover,  be  unblemished  by  any 
crime  against  the  state  or  sin  against  the  gods.  Spectators  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  crowded  to  the  festival. 

The  victor  was  crowned  with  a  garland  of  sacred  olive ;  heralds 
proclaimed  his  name  abroad;  his  native  city  received  him  as  a 
conqueror,  sometimes  through  a  breach  made  in  the  city  walls ; 
his  statues,  executed  by  eminent  artists,  were  erected  at  Olympia 
and  in  his  own  city;  sometimes  even  divine  honor  and  worship 
were  accorded  to  him ;  and  poets  and  orators  vied  with  the 
artist  in  perpetuating  his  name  and  triumphs  as  the  name  and 
triumphs  of  one  who  had  reflected  immortal  honor  upon  his 
native  state. 

142.  The  Pythian,  the  Nemean,  and  the  Isthmian  Games. — 
Besides  the  Olympian  games  there  were  transmitted  from  pre- 
historic times  the  germs  at  least  of  three  other  national  festivals. 
These  were  the  Pythian,  held  in  honor  of  Apollo,  near  his  shrine 
and  oracle  at  Delphi ;  the  Nemean,  celebrated  in  honor  of  Zeus, 
at  Nemea,  in  Argolis;  and  the^fsthmian,  observed  in  honor  of 
Poseidon,  on  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth.  Just  when  these  festivals 
had  their  beginnings  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  by  the  time  the 
historic  period  had  fairly  opened,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  sixth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  they  had  lost  their  local  and  assumed  a  national  charac- 
ter, and  were  henceforth  to  be  prominent  features  of  the  common 
life  of  the  Greek  cities. 

143.  Influence  of  the  Grecian  Games.  —  For  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years  these  national  festivals,  particularly  those  celebrated 
at  Olympia,  exerted  an  immense  influence  upon  the  social,  reli- 
gious, and  Hterary  life  of  Hellas.  They  enkindled  among  the 
widely  scattered  Hellenic  states  and  colonies  a  common  Ijter- 
ary  taste  and  enthusiasm ;  for  into  all  the  four  great  festivals, 
save  the  Olympian,  were  introduced,  sooner  or  later,  contests 
in  poetry,  oratory,  and  history.     During  the  festivals,  poets  and 


136       INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

historians  read  their  choicest  productions,  and  artists  exhibited 
their  masterpieces.  The  extraordinary  honors  accorded  to  the 
victors  stimulated  the  contestants  to  the  utmost,  and  strung  to 
the  highest  tension  every  power  of  body  and  mind. 

Particularly  were  the  games  promotXve-  ol  sculpture,  since 
they  afforded  the  sculptor  living  models  for  his  art  (sec.  318). 
"Without  the  Olympic  games,"  says  Holm,  "we  should  never 
have  had  Greek  sculpture." 

Moreover,  they  promoted  intercourse^andjtrade  ;  for  the  festi- 
vals naturally  became  great  centers  of  traffic  and  exchange  during 

the  progress  of  the 
games.  They 
softened,  too,  the 
manners  of  the 
people,  turning 
their  thoughts 
from  martial  ex- 
ploits and  giving 
the  states  respite 
Fig.  76.  — Greek  Runners  fr-om-warTtofdur^ 

ing  the  season  in  which  the  religious  games  were  held  it  was 
sacrilegious  to  engage  in  military  expeditions. 

They  also  promoted  intercourse  between  the  different  Grecian 
cities  and  kept  alive  common^ellemcieelin^and  sentiments. 
In  all  these  ways,  though  they  never  drew  the  states  into  a  com- 
mon political  union,  still  they  did  impress  a  common  character 
upon  their  social,  intellectual,  and  religious  Hfe.^* 

144.  The  Amphictyonic  Council.  —  Closely  connected  with  the 
rehgious  festivals  were  the  so-called  Amphictyonies,  or  "  leagues 
of  neighbors,"  which  formed  another  important  part  of  the  bequest 
from  the  legendary  age  to  historic  Greece.  These  were  asso- 
ciations of  a  number  of  cities  or  tribes  for  the  celebration  of 
religious  rites  at  some  shrine,  or  for  the  protection  of  some  par- 
ticular temple. 

14  The  Olympian  games,  after  having  been  suspended  since  the  fourth  century  of 
our  era,  were  revived,  with  an  international  character,  in  1896,  at  Athens. 


DOCTRINE   OF   DIVINE  JEALOUSY  137 

Preeminent  among  all  such  unions  was  that  known  as  the 
Delphic  Amphictyony,  or  simply  The  Amphictyony,  which  was 
fabled  to  have  been  instituted  by  the  hero  Amphictyon,  a  pre- 
historic king  of  Attica.  This  was  a  league  of  twelve  of  the  sub- 
tribes  of  Hellas,  whose  main  object  was  the  protection  of  the 
temple  of  Apollo  at  Delphi. 

Another  of  its  purposes  was,  by  humane  regulations,  to  miti- 
gate the  cruelties  of  war.  The  following  oath  was  taken  by  the 
members  of  the  league  :  "We  will  not  destroy  any  Amphictyonic 
town,  nor  cut  it  off  from  running  water,  in  war  or  in  peace ;  if 
any  one  shall  do  so,  we  will  march  against  him  and  destroy  his 
city."  This  was  one  of  the  first  steps  taken  in  the  practice  of 
international  law. 

The  Amphictyons  waged  in  behalf  of  the  Delphic  god  Apollo 
a  number  of  crusades  or  sacred  wars.  The  first  of  these  occurred 
at  the  opening  of  the  sixth  century  b.c.  (probably  about  595- 
586),  and  was  carried  on  against  the  Phocian  towns  of  Crissa 
and  Cirrha,  whose  inhabitants  had  been  guilty  of  annoying  the 
pilgrims  on  their  way  to  the  shrine.  The  cities  were  finally 
taken  and  leveled  to  the  ground.  Their  territory  was  also  con- 
secrated to  the  gods,  which  meant  that  it  was  never  thereafter 
to  be  plowed  or  planted,  or  in  any  way  devoted  to  secular  use. 

145.  Doctrine  of  Divine  Jealousy.  —  Several  rehgious  or  semi- 
rehgious  ideas,  which  were  a  bequest  to  the  historic  Greeks  from 
primitive  times,  colored  so  deeply  all  their  conceptions  of  life, 
and  supplied  them  so  often  with  motives  of  action,  that  we  must 
not  fail  to  take  notice  of  them  here.  Two  of  these  ideas  related 
to  the  envious  disposition  of  the  gods  and  the  nature  of  the  life 
after  death. 

The  Greeks  were  impressed,  as  all  peoples  and  generations 
have  been,  with  the  mutations  of  fortune  and  the  vicissitudes  of 
human  life.  Their  observation  and  experience  had  taught  them 
that  long-continued  good  fortune  and  unusual  prosperity  often 
issue  at  last  in  sudden  and  overwhelming  calamity.  They  attrib- 
uted this  to  the  jealousy  of  the  gods,  who,  they  imagined,  were 
envious  of  mortals  that  through  such  prosperity  seemed  to  have 


138      INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

become  too  much  like  one  of  themselves.  Thus  the  Greeks 
beheved  the  downfall  of  Croesus,  after  his  extraordinary  course 
of  uninterrupted  prosperity,  to  have  been  brought  about  by  the 
envy  of  the  celestials,  and  they  colored  the  story  to  bear  out  this 
version  of  the  matter. 

Later,  as  the  moral  feelings  of  the  Greeks  became  truer,  they 
put  a  different  interpretation  upon  the  facts.  They  said  that  the 
downfall  of  the  great  was  not  due  to  the  etwy  of  the  gods,  but  to 
their  righteous  indignation^  aroused  by  the  insolence  and  pre- 
sumptuous pride  engendered  by  over-great  prosperity. 

146.  Ideas  of  the  Future. — To  the  Greeks  hfe  here  on  earth 
was  so  bright  and  joyous  a  thing  that  they  looked  upon  death  as 
a  great  calamity.  Moreover,  they  pictured  life  after  death,  except 
in  the  case  of  a  favored  few,  as  being  hopeless  and  aimless.^^  The 
Elysian  Fields,  away  in  the  land  of  sunset,  were,  indeed,  filled 
with  every  delight ;  but  these  were  the  abode  only  of  the  great 
heroes  and  benefactors  of  the  race.  The  great  mass  of  mankind 
were  doomed  to  Hades,  where  the  spirit  existed  as  "a  feeble, 
joyless  phantom."  '^^  So  long  as  the  body  remained  unburied,  the 
shade  wandered  without  rest ;  hence  the  sacredness  of  the  rites 
of  sepulture. 

III.  Language,  Mythology,  Literature,  and  Art 

147.  The  Greek  Language.  —  One  of  the  most  wonderful  things 
which  the  Greeks  brought  out  of  their  dim  foretime  was  their 
language.  At  the  beginning  of  the  historic  period  their  language 
was  already  one  of  the  richest  and  most  perfectly  elaborated 
languages  ever  spoken  by  human  Hps.  Through  what  number 
of  centuries  this  language  was  taking  form  upon  the  Hps  of  the 

15  Homer  makes  the  shade  of  the  great  Achilles  in  Hades  to  say: 

"  I  would  be 
A  laborer  on  earth  and  serve  for  hire 
Some  man  of  mean  estate,  who  makes  scant  cheer, 
Rather  than  reign  o'er  all  who  have  gone  down 
To  death."—  Od.  xi.  489-490  (Bryant's  trans.). 


16 


Compare  sees.  57  and 


THE    MYTHOLOGY   OF   THE   GREEKS  139 

forefathers  of  the  historic  Greeks,  we  can  only  vaguely  imagine. 
It  certainly  bears  testimony  to  a  long  period  of  Hellenic  Hfe  lying 
behind  the  historic  age  in  Hellas. 

148.  The  Mythology  of  the  Greeks. — Another  wonderful  pos- 
session of  the  Greeks  when  they  first  appeared  in  history  was 
their  mythology.  All  races  in  the  earher  stages  of  their  develop- 
ment are  "myth-makers,"  but  no  race  has  ever  created  such  a 
rich  and  beautiful  mythology  as  did  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  this 
for  the  reason  that  no  other  race  was  ever  endowed  with  so  fertile 
and  lively  an  imagination. 

This  mythology  exercised  a  great  influence  upon  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  Their  religion,  their  poetry,  their 
art,  and  their  history  were  one  and  all  deeply  impressed  by 
this  wonderful  collection  of  legends  and  myths.  Some  of  these 
stories  inspired  religious  feeling ;  some  afforded  themes  to  the 
epic  and  tragic  poets ;  others  suggested  subjects  to  the  sculptor 
—  the  whole  mythology  was  cut  in  marble ;  and  still  others 
inspired  the  actors  in  Greek  history  to  many  an  heroic  deed  or 
adventurous  undertaking. 

149.  Early  Greek  Literature  ;  the  Homeric  Poems. — The  rich 
and  flexible  language  of  the  Greeks  had  already  in  prehistoric 
times  been  wrought  into  epic  poems  whose  beauty  and  perfec- 
tion are  unequaled  by  the  similar  productions  of  any  other  people 
or  race.  These  epics  transmitted  from  the  Greek  foretime  are 
known  as  the  "Homeric  poems,"  consisting  of  the  Iliad  ^xA  the 
Odyssey. 

Neither  the  exact  date  nor  the  authorship  of  the  Homeric 
poems  is  known  (sec.  330).  That  they  were  the  prized  possession 
of  the  Greeks  at  the  beginning  of  the  historical  period  is  all  that 
it  is  important  for  us  to  note  here.  They  were  a  sort  of  Bible  to 
the  Greeks,  and  exercised  an  incalculable  influence  not  only  upon 
the  religious  but  also  upon  the  literary  life  of  the  entire  Hellenic 
world. 

150.  Early  Greek  Art.  —  In  the  field  of  art  the  heritage  of  his- 
toric Greece  from  the  legendary  age  consisted  rather  in  a  certain 
inherited  instinct  or  feeling  for   the  beautiful  than  in  acquired 


140      INHERITANCE  OF  THE  HISTORIC  GREEKS 

skill.  "  The  Homeric  poetry  was,  indeed,"  says  Professor  Jebb, 
"instinct  with  the  promises  of  Hellenic  art.  Such  qualities  of 
poetical  thought,  such  forms  of  language,  announced  a  race  from 
which  great  artists  might  be  expected  to  spring."  ^^ 

This  prophecy  we  shall  see  passing  into  fulfillment  in  the  ideal 
perfection  of  the  art  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles. 

References.  —  Curtius,  vol.  ii,  pp.  i-i  1 1.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol. 
ii,  pp.  164-194;  vol.  iii,  pp.  276-297.  Holm,  vol.  i,  chaps,  i,  xi,  and  xix. 
CouLANGES,  The  Ancient  City,  bks.  i-iii.  Fowler,  The  City-State  of  the 
Greeks  a7id  Rofnans,  chaps,  i-iii.  Richardson,  Vacation  Days  in  Greece, 
"  Delphi,  the  Sanctuary  of  Greece,"  and  "  Dodona."  Gardner,  A^ezv  Chap- 
ters in  Greek  History,  chap,  ix,  "  Olympia  and  the  Festivals,"  and  chap,  xiii, 
"Eleusis  and  the  Mysteries."  Diehl,  Excursions  in  Greece,  chap,  vii;  on 
the  Grecian  games. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Religion  as  the  organizer  of  the  ancient 
city-state.  See  Coidanges  and  Fo7vler.  2.  The  Doctrine  of  Divine  Envy  in 
Herodotus.  Consult  Index  under  Crcesics,  Poly  crates,  and  Artabajius.  3.  The 
influence  of  the  Delphian  oracle  compared  with  that  of  the  mediaeval 
Papacy.  4.  The  story  of  Demeter  and  Persephone.  5.  The  Eleusinian 
mysteries.     6.  The  Olympian  games. 

17  "When  the  Hellenes  created  the  Epos,  they  were  already  Greeks;  i.e.  the 
chosen  people  of  poetry  and  art."  —  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  History  of  Art  in 
Primitive  Greece,  vol.  i,  p.  7. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
THE  GROWTH  OF  SPARTA 

151.  The  Early  Ascendancy  of  Argos ;   King  Pheidon.  —  We 

have  seen  how  the  Dorians,  long  before  the  historic  period,  in- 
vaded the  Peloponnesus,^  and  subjected  or  drove  out  the  greater 
part  of  the  Achaean  population  then  possessing  the  land  (sec.  132). 
One  result  of  the  invasion  was  the  establishment  of  a  number  of 
Dorian  city-states,  of  which  Sparta,  in  the  south  of  the  peninsula, 
came  in  time  to  be  chief  and  leader. 

But  before  Sparta  acquired  supremacy  in  the  Peloponnesus, 
another  Dorian  city  in  the  north  had  secured,  and  for  a  consid- 
erable time  maintained,  a  position  of  preeminence.  This  was 
Argos,  which  arose  in  Argolis,  near  the  ruins  of  the  old  Mycenaean 
strongholds.^ 

For  a  long  time  we  see  the  rising  city-state  only  through  the 
mist  of  uncertain  tradition.  Shadowy  forms  of  Argive  kings  move 
before  us,  but  it  is  not  until  the  eighth  century  before  our  era 
that  we  are  able  to  make  out  clearly  the  figure  of  a  single  per- 
sonage. Then  King  Pheidon  stands  out  in  a  light  strong  enough 
to  enable  us  to  pronounce  him  a  man  of  real  flesh  and  blood .^ 

The  most  noteworthy  matter  associated  by  tradition  with  the 
name  of  Pheidon  is  connected  with  the  economic  life  of  the  times. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  coin  copper  and  silver  in 

1  Previous  to  their  migration  the  Dorians  dwelt  in  Thessaly,  on  the  eastern 
slopes  of  the  Pindus.  Driven  from  their  seats  by  an  invasion,  they  migrated  south- 
ward, and  after  dwelling  for  a  time  in  Central  Greece,  moved  on  into  the  Pelopon- 
nesus. A  part  of  the  race,  however,  remaining  behind,  formed  the  Doris  of  historic 
times. 

2  At  Mycenae,  the  city  of  Agamemnon,  the  Dorian  conquerors  walked  for  centu- 
ries over  the  graves  of  the  ancient  royal  race  of  that  city  without  the  least  concep- 
tion of  what  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  were  buried  beneath  their  feet  (sec.  131,  n.  5). 

3  The  date  of  Pheidon  is  not  known  with  certainty,  but  probably  it  falls  about 
770-730  B.C. 

141 


142  THE   GROWTH   OF   SPARTA 

Greece,  and  to  have  introduced  a  new  or  improved  scale  of 
weights  and  measures. 

This  Pheidonian  system  of  coinage,  weights,  and  measures  was 
of  Babylonian  origin  (sec.  62 ) .  Its  introduction  into  Greece  shows 
how  deep  an  influence  the  civilization  of  the  East  was  at  this  early 
period  exercising  upon  the  rising  cities  of  Hellas. 

After  Pheidon,  Argos  sank  into  comparative  obscurity.  In  the 
sixth  century  she  was  overshadowed  by  the  rising  Dorian  cities  of 
Corinth  and  Sicyon,  and  especially  by  the  growing  power  of  Sparta. 

152.  The  Location  of  Sparta.  —  Sparta,  the  most  renowned  after 
Athens  of  the  cities  of  Hellas,  was  the  chief  of  the  Dorian  cities 


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Fig.  77.  —  Sparta,  with  the  Ranges  of  the  Tavgetus  in 
THE  Background.     (From  a  photograph) 

of  the  Peloponnesus  which  owed  their  origin  or  importance  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  Dorian  invasion.  It  was  situated  in  the 
deep  valley  of  the  Eurotas,  in  Laconia,  about  thirty  miles  from 
the  sea. 

The  settlement  took  its  name,  Sparta,'^  from  the  circumstance 
that  the  group  of  villages  was  built  upon  tillable  ground,  whereas 
the  core  of  most  (Ireek  cities  consisted  of  a  lofty  rock  or  acrop- 
olis. But  Sparta  needed  no  citadel.  Her  situation,  surrounded  as 
she  was  by  almost  impassable  mountain  barriers,  and  far  removed 

4  liTrapTT],  sown  land. 


3 


CLASSES    IN   THE  SPARTAN   STATE  143 

from  the  sea,  was  her  sufficient  defense.  Indeed,  the  Spartans 
seem  to  have  thought  it  unnecessary  even  to  erect  a  wall  round 
their  city,  which  stood  open  on  every  side  until  late  and  degen- 
erate times.  And  events  justified  this  feeling  of  security.  So 
difficult  of  access  to  an  enemy  is  the  valley,  that  during  more  than 
four  hundred  years  of  Spartan  history  the  waters  of  the  Eurotas 
never  once  reflected  the  camp  fires  of  an  invading  army. 

153.  Classes  in  the  Spartan  State.  Before  proceeding  to  speak 
of  the  social  and  political  institutions  of  the  Spartans,  we  must 
first  notice  the  three  classes  —  Spartans,  Perioeci,  and  Helots  — 
into  which  the  population  of  Laconia  was  divided. 

/  The  Spartans  proper  were  the  descendants  of  the  conquerors 

of  the  country,  and  were  Dorian  in  race  and  language.  They  com- 
posed but  a  small  fraction  of  the  entire  population,  at  no  period 
numbering  more  than  ten  thousand  men  capable  of  bearing  arms. 

"2^.  The  Perioeci  (dwellers  around),  who  constituted  the  second 
class,  were  the  subjugated jiatives.  They  are  said  to  have  out- 
numbered the  Spartans  three  to  one.  They  were  allowed  to 
retain  possession  of  their  lands,  but  were  forced  to  pay  tribute- 
rent,  and  in  times  of  war  to  fight  for  the  glory  and  interest  of 
their  Spartan  masters. 

The  third  and  lowest  class  was  composed  of  slaves,  or  serfs, 
called  Helo^.  The  larger  number  of  these  were  laborers  upon 
the  estates  of  the  Spartans.  They  were  the  property  of  the  state, 
and  not  of  the  individual  Spartan  lords,  among  whom  they  were 
distributed  by  lot. 

These  Helots  had  no  rights,  practically,  which  their  Spartan 
masters  felt  bound  to  respect.  It  is  affirmed  that  when  they 
grew  too  numerous  for  the  safety  of  the  state,  their  numbers  were 
thinned  by  a  deliberate  massacre  of  the  surplus  population.^ 

5  "  Once,  when  they  [the  Spartans]  were  afraid  of  the  number  and  vigour  of  the 
Helot  youth,  this  was  wliat  they  did:  They  proclaimed  that  a  selection  would  be 
made  of  those  Helots  who  claimed  to  have  rendered  the  best  service  to  the 
Lacedaemonians  in  war,  and  promised  them  liberty.  The  announcement  was 
intended  to  test  them;  it  was  thought  that  those  among  them  who  were  foremost  in 
asserting  tlieir  freedom  would  be  most  high-spirited,  and  most  likely  to  rise  against 
their  masters.      So   they  selected   about   two   thousand,  who  were  crowned  with 


144 


THE   GROWTH   OF   SPARTA 


154.  The  Legend  of  Lycurgus.  —  Of  the  history  of  Sparta  before 
the  First  Olympiad  we  have  no  certain  knowledge.  According 
to  tradition,  peace,  prosperity,  and  rapid  growth  were  secured 
through  the  adoption  of  a  most  remarkable  political  constitution 
framed  by  a  great  lawgiver  named  Lycurgus.*^ 

Legend  represents  Lycurgus  as  having  fitted  himself  for  his 
great  work  through  an  acquaintance,  by  converse  with  priests  and 
sages,  with  the  laws  and  institutions  of  different  lands.  He  is  said 
to  have  studied  with  zeal  the  laws  of  Minos,  the  legendary  law- 
giver of  Crete,  and  to  have  become  learned,  like  the  legislator 
Moses,  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians. 

Upon  the  return  of  Lycurgus  to  Sparta,  —  we  still  follow  the 
tradition,  —  his  learning  and  wisdom  soon  made  him  the  leader 
of  a  strong  party.  After  much  opposition  a  system  of  laws  and 
regulations  drawn  up  by  him  was  adopted  by  the  Spartan  people. 
Then,  binding  his  countrymen  by  a  solemn  oath  that  they  would 
carefully  observe  his  laws  during  his  absence,  he  went  into  an 
unknown  exile. 

It  is  probable  that  Lycurgus  was  a  real  person,  and  that  he 
had  something  to  do  with  shaping  the  Spartan  constitution.  But 
it  is  almost  certain  that  he  simply  reformed  a  constitution  already 
in  existence ;  for  it  is  a  proverb  that  constitutions  grow  and  are 
not  made.  Circumstances,  doubtless,  were  in  the  main  the  real 
creator  of  the  peculiar  political  institutions  of  Sparta,  —  the  cir- 
cumstances that  surrounded  a  small  band  of  conquerors  in  the 
midst  of  a  large  and  subject  population. 

155.  The  Spartan  Constitution :  the  Kings ;  the  Senate ;  the 
General  Assembly ;  and  the  Ephors.  —  The  so-called  constitution 
of  Lycurgus  provided  for  two  joint  kings,  a  Senate  of  Elders,  a 
General  Assembly,  and  a  sort  of  executive  board  composed  of  five 
persons  called  Ephors. 

garlands  and  went  in  procession  round  the  temples ;  they  were  supposed  to  have 
received  their  liberty ;  but  not  long  afterwards  the  Spartans  put  them  all  out  of  the 
way,  and  no  man  knew  how  any  one  of  them  came  by  his  end."  —  Thucydides, 
iv.  80  (Jowett's  trans.). 

6  The  date  of  Lycurgus  falls  somewhere  in  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  probably  near 
its  close. 


THE   SPARTAN    CONSTITUTION  145 

The  two  kings  corresponded  in  some  respects  to  the  two 
consuls  in  the  later  Roman  republic/  One  served  as  a  check 
upon  the  other.  This  double  sovereignty  worked  admirably ;  for 
five  centuries  there  was  no  successful  attempt  on  the  part  of  a 
Spartan  king  to  subvert  the  constitution.  The  power  of  the  joint 
kings,  it  should  be  added,  came  to  be  rather  nominal  than  real, 
save  in  time  of  war. 

The  Senate  consisted  of  twenty-eight  elders.  The  two  coordi- 
nate kings  were  also  members,  thus  raising  the  number  to  thirty. 
The  duties  of  the  body  seem  to  have  been  both  of  a  judicial  and 
a  legislative  character.  No  one  could  become  a  senator  until  he 
had  reached  the  age  of  sixty. 

The  General  Assembly  was  composed  of  all  the  citizens  of 
Sparta  over  thirty  yearFoF^ageT'^'Ey  this  Wd'y  laws  were  made 
and  questions  of  peace  and  war  decided ;  but  nothing  could  be 
brought  before  it  save  such  matters  as  the  Senate  had  previously 
decided  might  be  entertained  by  it. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  custom  at  Athens,  all  matters  were 
decided  without  general  debate,  only  the  magistrates  and  persons 
specially  invited  being  allowed  to  address  the  assemblage.  The 
Spartans  were  fighters,  not  talkers ;  they  hated  windy  discussion. 

The  board  of  Ephors  was  composed,  as  we  have  noticed,  of 
five  persoJiSv,elected  in  some  way  not  known  to  us.  This  body 
gradually  drew  to  itself  many  of  the  powers  and  functions  of  the 
Senate,  as  well  as  much  of  the  authority  of  the  associate  kings. 

156.  Regulations  as  to  Land,  Trade,  and  Money.  —  Plutarch 
says  that  Lycurgus,  seeing  that  the  lands  had  fallen  largely  into 
the  hands  of  the  rich,  made  a  general  redistribution  of  them, 
allotting  an  equal  portion  to  each  of  the  nine  thousand  Spartan 
citizens,  and  a  smaller  and  less  desirable  portion  to  each  of  the 

7  Various  explanations  are  given  of  the  origin  of  this  dual  monarchy.  One 
theory  supposes  one  king  to  represent  the  Achaean  race  and  the  other  the  Dorian ; 
a  second  assumes  that  the  double  monarchy  arose  from  the  union  of  two  Dorian 
settlements ;  while  still  a  third  regards  the  two  kings  as  representing  two  leading 
families  at  Sparta,  whose  rival  claims  to  the  throne  were  accommodated  by  raising 
a  member  of  each  to  the  royal  dignity.  See  Abbott,  History  of  Greece,  vol  i, 
pp.  206,  207. 


146  THE   GROWTH    OF   SPARTA 

thirty  thousand  Perioeci.  It  is  not  probable  that  there  ever  was 
such  an  exact  division  of  landed  property.  The  Spartan  theory, 
it  is  true,  seems  to  have  been  that  every  free  man  should  possess 
a  farm  large  enough  to  support  him  without  work,  so  that  he 
might  give  himself  wholly  to  his  duties  as  a  citizen ;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  there  existed,  at  certain  periods  at  least,  great 
inequality  in  landed  possessions  among  the  Spartans.  In  the 
fourth  century,  according  to  Plutarch,  not  more  than  one  hun- 
dred of  the  citizens  held  any  land  at  all. 

The  Spartans  were  forbidden  to  engage  in  commerce  or  to 
pursue  any  trade ;  all  their  time  must  be  passed  in  the  chase,  or 
in  gymnastic  and  martial  exercises.  Iron  was  made  the  sole 
money  of  the  state.  This  money,  as  described  by  Plutarch,  was 
so  heavy  in  proportion  to  its  value  that  the  amount  needed  to 
make  a  trifling  purchase  required  a  yoke  of  oxen  to  draw  it. 
The  object  of  Lycurgus  in  instituting  such  a  currency  was,  we 
are  told,  to  prevent  its  being  used  for  the  purchase  of  worthless 
foreign  stuff.  ^ 

157.  The  Public  Tables. — The  most  peculiar,  perhaps,  of  the 
Spartan  institutions  were  the  public  meals.  In  order  to  correct 
the  extravagance  with  which  the  tables  of  the  rich  were  often 
spread,  Lycurgus  is  said  to  have  ordered  that  all  the  citizens 
should  eat  at  public  and  common  tables.  This  was  their  custom, 
but  Lycurgus  could  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  instituting  it. 
It  was  part  of  their  military  life. 

Every  citizen  was  required  to  contribute  to  these  common 
meals  a  certain  amount  of  flour,  fruit,  game,  or  pieces  from 
the  sacrifices ;  if  any  one  failed  to  pay  his  contribution,  he  was 
degraded  and  disfranchised.  Excepting  the  Ephors,  none,  not 
even  the  kings,  was  excused  from  sitting  at  the  common  mess. 


8  The  real  truth  about  this  iron  money  is  simply  this :  the  conservative,  non- 
trading  Spartans  retained  longer  than  the  other  Grecian  states  the  use  of  a  primi- 
tive medium  of  exchange.  Gold  and  silver  money  was  not  introduced  into  Sparta 
until  about  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  when  the  great  expansion  of  her 
interests  rendered  a  change  in  her  money  system  absolutely  necessary.  In  referring 
the  establishment  of  the  early  currency  to  Lycurgus  the  Spartans  simply  did  in  this 
case  just  what  they  did  in  regard  to  their  other  usages. 


EDUCATION    OF   THE   YOUTH  147 

One  of  the  kings,  returning  from  an  expedition,  presumed  to  dine 
privately  with  his  wife,  but  received  therefor  a  severe  reproof. 

A  luxury-loving  Athenian  once  visited  Sparta  and  seeing  the 
coarse  fare  of  the  citizens,  which  seems  to  have  consisted  in  the 
main  of  a  black  broth,  is  reported  to  have  declared  that  now  he 
understood  the  Spartan  disregard  of  life  in  battle  :  "  Any  one," 
said  he,  "must  naturally  prefer  death  to  life  on  such  fare  as  this." 
158.  Education  of  the  Youth.  —  Children  at  Sparta  were  regarded 
as  belonging  to  the  state.  Every  male  infant  was  brought  before 
the  Council  of  Elders,  and  if  it  did  not  seem  Hkely  to  become 
a  robust  and  useful  citizen,  was  exposed  in  a  mountain  glen.  At 
seven  the  education  and  training  of  the  youth  were  committed 
to  the  charge  of  pubhc  officers,  called  boy  trainers.  The  aim  of 
the  entire  course  was  to  make  a  nation  of  soldiers  who  should 
contemn  toil  and  danger  and  prefer  death  to  military  dishonor. 

The  mind  was  cultivated  only  as  far  as  might  contribute  to  the 
main  object  of  the  system.  Reading  and  writing  were  not  taught, 
and  the  art  of  rhetoric  was  despised.  Only  martial  poems  were 
recited.  The  Spartans  had  a  profound  contempt  for  the  subtle- 
ties and  Hterary  acquirements  of  the  Athenians.  Spartan  brevity 
was  a  proverb,  whence  our  word  laconic  (from  Laconia),  meaning 
a  concise  and  pithy  mode  of  expression.  Boys  were  taught  to 
respond  in  the  fewest  words  possible.  At  the  public  tables  they 
were  not  permitted  to  speak  until  questioned ;  they  sat  "  silent 
as  statues."  As  Plutarch  puts  it,  "  Lycurgus  was  for  having  the 
money  bulky,  heavy,  and  of  little  value ;  and  the  language,  on 
the  contrary,  very  pithy  and  short,  and  a  great  deal  of  sense 
compressed  in  a  few  words." 

But  while  the  mind  was  neglected,  the  body  was  carefully 
trained.  In  running,  leaping,  wrestling,  and  hurling  the  spear 
the  Spartans  acquired  the  most  surprising  nimbleness  and  dex- 
terity. At  the  Olympian  games  Spartan  champions  more  fre- 
quently than  any  others  bore  off  the  prizes  of  victory. 

But  before  all  things  else  was  the  Spartan  youth  taught  to  bear 
pain  unflinchingly.  He  was  inured  to  the  cold  of  winter  by 
being  forced  to  pass  through  that  season  with  only  the  light  dress 


148  THE   GROWTH    OF   SPARTA 

of  summer.  His  bed  was  a  bundle  of  river  reeds.  Sometimes 
he  was  placed  before  the  altar  of  Artemis  and  scourged  just  for 
the  purpose  of  accustoming  his  body  to  pain.  Frequently,  it  is 
said,  boys  died  under  the  lash  without  revealing  their  suffering 
by  look  or  moan. 

Another  custom  tended  to  the  same  end  as  the  foregoing  usage. 
The  boys  were  at  times  compelled  to  forage  for  their  food.  If 
detected,  they  were  severely  punished  for  having  been  so  unskillful 
as  not  to  get  safely  away  with  their  booty.  This  custom,  as  well 
as  the  fortitude  of  the  Spartan  youth,  is  familiar  to  all  through  the 
story  of  the  boy  who,  having  stolen  a  young  fox  and  concealed 
it  beneath  his  tunic,  allowed  the  animal  to  tear  out  his  vitals  with- 
out betraying  himself  by  the  movement  of  a  muscle. 

That  the  laws  and  regulations  of  the  Spartan  constitution  were 
admirably  adapted  to  the  end  in  view,  —  the  rearing  of  a  nation 
of  skillful  and  resolute  warriors,  —  the  long  military  supremacy  of 
Sparta  among  the  states  of  Greece  abundantly  attests. 

159.  The  Spartan  Conquest  of  Messenia :  the  First  and  Second 
Messenian  Wars  (about  743-723  and  645-631  b.c).  —  The  most 
important  event  in  Spartan  history  between  the  age  of  Lycurgus 
and  the  commencement  of  the  Persian  Wars  was  the  long  contest 
with  Messenia,  known  as  the  First  and  Second  Messenian  Wars. 

Messenia  was  one  of  those  districts  of  the  Peloponnesus  which, 
like  Laconia,  had  been  taken  possession  of  by  Dorian  bands  at 
the  time  of  the  great  invasion.  It  was  the  most  pleasant  and 
fertile  of  all  the  Peloponnesian  districts  which  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Dorians.  Here  the  intruding  Dorians,  contrary  to  what 
was  the  case  in  Laconia,  had  mingled  with  the  native  population 
to  form  a  new  mixed  race. 

The  real  cause  of  the  war  which  now  broke  out  between  the 
Spartans  and  the  Messenians  was  probably  Spartan  lust  of  con- 
quest. The  occasion  is  said  to  have  been  some  border  trouble 
about  some  cattle  or  other  petty  matter.  The  struggle  falls  into 
two  periods,  the  so-called  First  and  Second  Messenian  Wars 
(about  743-723  and  645-631  B.C.).  Of  these  early  wars  of 
Sparta  the  accounts  are  confused  and  contradictory.     It  is  only 


THE  SPARTAN  CONQUEST  OF  MESSENIA       149 

the  general  course  of  events  that  we  can  make  out  with  any 
degree  of  certainty. 

In  the  first  war  the  Messenians,  under  the  lead  of  their 
patriot  king  Aristodemus,  offered  an  obstinate  resistance  to  the 
Spartan  invaders.  A  strongly  fortified  city  on  the  cHffs  of  Mount 
Ithome  was  the  last  rallying  place  of  the  hard-pressed  Messenians. 
But  after  a  prolonged  siege  this  citadel  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Spartans,  and  the  first  war  came  to  an  end. 

The  conquered  Messenians  were  reduced  to  vassalage,  their  rela- 
tion to  the  Spartans  becoming  somewhat  like  that  of  the  Perioeci 
of  Laconia.  Many  of  the  better  class,  choosing  exile  to  servitude, 
fled  beyond  the  sea  to  Ionia  or  to  Italy  in  search  of  new  homes. 

An  interval  of  two  generations  separated  the  First  from  the 
Second  Messenian  War.  Then  the  sons  of  the  sons  of  those 
Messenians  who  had  made  the  first  brave  fight  against  the  Spartan 
invaders  of  their  land,  taking  advantage  of  Sparta's  misfortunes 
in  war,  flew  to  arms  with  the  desperate  determination  to  drive 
out  the  enslavers  of  their  country.  The  Messenians  were  aided 
in  their  struggle  by  Argos  and  some  of  the  Arcadian  states  that 
were  jealous  of  the  rising  power  of  Sparta. 

But  the  freedom  which  the  fathers  could  not  preserve  the  sons 
could  not  regain.  The  uprising  was  finally  crushed,^  and  as  a 
punishment  for  their  revolt  the  Spartans  laid  upon  the  necks  of 
the  reconquered  people  a  still  heavier  yoke  of  servitude.  From 
the  state  of  Perioeci  they  were  reduced  to  the  degrading  and 
bitter  condition  of  the  Helots  of  Laconia. 

As  at  the  end  of  the  first  war,  so  now  many  of  the  nobles  fled 
the  country  and  found  hospitahty  as  exiles  in  other  lands.  Some 
of  the  fugitives  conquered  for  themselves  a  place  in  Sicily  and 
gave  name  and  importance  to  the  still  existing  city  of  Messana 
(Messina),  on  the  Sicilian  straits. 

Thus  Sparta  secured  possession  of  Messenia.  From  the  end  of 
the  Second  Messenian  War  on  to  the  decline  of  the  Spartan  power 

9  According  to  tradition  the  Spartans  owed  in  part  their  final  victory  to  a  poet 
named  Tyrtasus,  who,  at  a  critical  period  of  the  war,  reanimated  their  drooping  spirits 
by  his  inspiring  war  songs. 


ISO 


THE   GROWTH   OF   SPARTA 


in  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  the  Messenians  were  the  serfs  of  the 
Spartans.  All  the  southern  part  of  the  Peloponnesus  was  now 
Spartan  territory. 

1 60.  Spartan  Supremacy  established  in  Central  and  Northern 
Peloponnesus.  —  After  Sparta  had  secured  possession  of  Messenia, 
her  influence  and  power  advanced  steadily  until  her  leadership 
was  acknowledged  by  all  the  other  states  of  the  Peloponnesus 
save  Argos. 

This  city  naturally  made  a  stout  fight  for  the  maintenance  of 
her  ancient  supremacy  (sec.  151).  But  an  awful  disaster  left  her 
shorn  of  power,  though  not  of  independence.  Defeated  in  battle, 
the  Argives  on  one  occasion  fled  for  refuge  to  a  sacred  grove  near 
at  hand.  Here  they  were  hemmed  in  by  the  Spartans,  and  then 
the  wood  set  afire.  The  six  thousand  Argives  within  the  grove 
perished  to  a  man,  those  that  endeavored  to  escape  the  flames 
falling  by  the  Spartan  swords.  Thus  in  a  single  day  two  thirds 
of  the  fighting  population  of  Argos  were  destroyed.^*^ 

This  terrible  crime  left  Spartan  influence  supreme  in  Argolis. 
Argos  remained,  it  is  true,  a  free  city,  but  her  authority  extended 
only  a  little  distance  beyond  her  walls. 

Even  before  the  complete  destruction  of  the  Argive  power  by 
Sparta  she  had  formed  close  alhances  with  the  important  Dorian 
cities  of  Corinth  and  Sicyon.  At  the  same  time,  gaining  influence 
at  Olympia,  in  Ehs,  she  secured  the  virtual  management  of  the 
Olympian  games.  Through  these  national  festivals  her  name  and 
fame  were  spread  throughout  all  Hellas. 

Sparta  now  began  to  be  looked  to  even  by  the  Greek  cities 
beyond  the  Peloponnesus  as  the  natural  leader  and  champion  of 
the  Greeks.  ^Her  renown  was  also,  it  seems,  spreading  even  among 
barbarian  nations ;  for  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
we  hear  of  an  attempt  made  by  Croesus,  king  of  Lydia,  to  secure 
her  for  an  ally  in  his  unfortunate  war  with  Persia,  which  was  at 
that  time  the  rising  power  in  Asia  (sec.  96). 

Having  now  traced  in  brief  outline  the  rise  of  Sparta  to 
supremacy  in  the  Peloponnesus,  we  must  turn  aside  to  take  a 

10  The  date  of  this  massacre  is  unknown.     It  probably  occurred  about  505  B.C. 


REFERENCES 


151 


wider  look  over  Hellas,  in  order  to  note  an  expansion  movement 
of  the  Hellenic  race  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  Hel- 
lenes upon  almost  every  shore  of  the  then  known  world. 


Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Lycurgzis.  Thu- 
CYDIDES,  i.  10,  beginning;  ibid.  18,  beginning;  ibid.  20,  beginning;  iv.  17, 
beginning. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  i,  pp.  175-315.  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  259-377.  Abbott,  vol.  i,  chaps,  v-viii.  Holm, 
vol.  i,  chaps,  xv-xvii.  Duncker,  vol.  i,  pp.  336-435;  vol.  ii,  pp.  53-73. 
Allcroft  and  Masom,  Early  Grecian  History,  chaps,  viii  and  xi.  Oman, 
History  of  Greece,  chaps,  vii  and  viii.  Greenidge,  Handbook  of  Greek 
Constitutional  History,  chap,  v,  sees.  1-3.  Gilbert,  The  Constitutional 
Antiquities  of  Sparta  and  Athens ;  first  part.  A  book  for  the  special 
student. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  origin  of  the  double  sovereignty 
at  Sparta.  2.  The  women  of  Sparta.  3.  Legends  of  the  Messenian  wars. 
4.  The  Helots  of  Laconia.     5.  The  Spartan  constitution. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE  AGE  OF  GREEK  COLONIZATION 

(About  750-600  B.C.) 

161 .  Causes  of  Greek  Colonization. — The  latter  half  of  the  eighth 
and  the  seventh  century  B.C.  constituted  a  period  in  Greek  his- 
tory marked  by  great  activity  in  the  estabhshment  of  colonies. 
This  expansion  movement  of  the  Greek  race  forms  an  important 
chapter  not  only  in  Hellenic  but  also,  as  we  shall  learn,  in  general 
history. 

The  inciting  causes  of  Greek  colonization  at  the  period  named  ^ 
were  various.  One  was  the  growth  in  wealth  of  the  cities  of  the 
home  land  2  and  the  consequent  expansion  of  their  trade  _and  j 
commerce.  This  development  had  created  an  eager  desire  for 
wealth,  and  had  given  birth  to  a  spirit  of  mercantile  enterprise. 
Thousands  were  ready  to  take  part  in  any  undertaking  which 
seemed  to  offer  a  chance  for  adventure  or  to  open  a  way  to  the  ^^ 
quick  acquisition  of  riches. 

Another  motive  of  eniigration  was  supplied  by  the  j^itical 
unrest  which  at  this  time  filled  almost  all  the  cities  of  Greece. 
The  growth  within  their  walls  of  a  wealthy  trading  class,  who 
naturally  desired  to  have  a  part  in  the  government,  brought  this 
order  in  conflict  with  the  oligarchs,  who  in  most  of  the  cities  at 
this  time  held  in  their  hands  all  poUtical  authority.  The  resulting 
contentions,  issuing  in  the  triumph  now  of  this  party  and  then 
of  that,  or  perhaps  in  the  rise  of  a  tyrant  whose  rule  often  bore 
heavily  on  all  orders  alike,  created  a  large  discontented  class, 
who  were  ready  to  undergo  the  privations  attending  the  founding 

1  We  are  not  concerned  in  the  present  chapter  with  the  earlier  emigration  from 
continental  Greece  to  Asia  Minor  caused  by  the  Dorian  invasion  of  the  Peloponnesus 
(sec.  133). 

2  By  the  "  home  land,"  as  we  here  use  the  term,  we  mean  the  western  shore  of 
Asia  Minor,  the  islands  of  the  JEgezn,  and  Greece  proper. 

152 


CHARACTER   OF   A  GREEK  COLONY  153 

of  new  homes  in  remote  lands,  if  only  thereby  they  might  secure 
freer  conditions  of  life. 

Other  motives  blended  with  those  already  mentioned.  There 
was  the  restless_Greek  spirit,  the  Greek  love  of  adventure,  which 
doubtless  impelled  many  of  the  young  and  ardent  to  embark  in 
the  undertakings.  To  this  class  especially  did  Sicily  and  the  other 
little-known  lands  of  the  West  present  a  peculiar  attraction. 

To  all  these  inciting  causes  of  the  great  emigration  must  be 
added  the  aggressiaQS_Qf_S.parta  upon  her  neighbors  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesus. We  have  already  seen  that  many  of  the  Messenians,  at  the 
end  of  their  first  and  again  at  the  close  of  their  second  unsuccess- 
ful struggle  with  Sparta,  joined  the  emigrants  who  just  then  were 
setting  out  for  the  colonies  in  the  western  seas  (sec.  159). 

162.  Relation  of  a  Greek  Colony  to  its  Mother  City.  — The  his- 
tory of  the  Greek  colonies  would  be  uninteUigible  without  an 
understanding  of  the  relation  in  which  a  Greek  colony  stood  to 
the  city  sending  out  the  emigrants. 

There  was  a  fundamental  difference  between  Greek  colonization 
and  Roman.  The  Roman  colony  was  subject  to  the  authority  of 
the  mother  city.  The  emigrants  remained  citizens  or  semi-citi- 
zens of  Rome.®  The  Greek  colony,  on  the  other  hand,  was,  in 
almost  all  cases,  wholly  independent  of  its  parent  city.  The  Greek 
mind  could  not  entertain  the  idea  of  one  city  as  rightly  ruling 
over  another,  even  though  that  other  were  her  own  daughter 
colony.'* 

But  while  there  were  no  political  bonds  uniting  the  mother  city 
and  her  daughter  colonies,  still  the  colonies  were  attached  to  their 
parent  country  by  ties  of  kinship,  of  culture,  and  of  filial  piety. 
The  sacred  fire  on  the  altar  of  the  new  home  was  kindled  from 

3  In  this  respect  the  colonies  of  Rome  resembled  those  of  modern  European 
states. 

4  Besides  these  independent  colonies,  however,  which  were  united  to  the  mother 
city  by  the  ties  of  friendship  and  reverence  alone,  there  was  another  class  of  colo- 
nies known  as  dcruchies.  The  settlers  in  these  did  not  lose  their  rights  of  citi- 
zenship in  the  mother  city,  which  retained  full  control  of  their  affairs.  Such 
settlements,  however,  were  more  properly  garrisons  than  colonies,  and  were  few  in 
number  compared  with  the  independent  communities.  Athens  had  a  number  of 
such  colonies. 


154  THE  AGE   OF   GREEK  COLONIZATION 

embers  piously  borne  by  the  emigrants  from  the  public  hearth  of 
the  mother  city,  and  testified  constantly  that  the  citizens  of  the 
two  cities  were  members  of  the  same  though  a  divided  family. 
Thus  by  the  ties  of  religion  were  the  mother  and  the  daughter 
city  naturally  drawn  into  close  sympathy. 

The  feehng  that  the  colonists  entertained  for  their  mother  coun- 
try is  shown  by  the  names  which  they  often  gave  to  the  prominent 
objects  in  and  about  their  new  home.  Just  as  the  affectionate 
memory  of  the  homes  from  which  they  had  gone  out  prompted 
the  New  England  colonists  to  reproduce  in  the  new  land  the 
names  of  places  and  objects  dear  to  them  in  the  old,  so  did  the 
cherished  remembrance  of  the  land  they  had  left  lead  the  Greek 
emigrants  to  give  to  the  streets  and  temples  and  fountains  and 
hills  of  their  new  city  the  familiar  and  endeared  names  of  the 
old  home. 

163.  The  Condition  of  the  Mediterranean  World  favorable  to  the 
Colonizing  Movement.  —  The  Mediterranean  lands  were  at  this 
time,  say  during  the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries  B.C.,  in  a  most 
favorable  state  for  this  colonizing  movement  of  the  Greeks.  The 
cities  of  Phoenicia,  the  great  rivals  of  the  Greeks  in  maritime 
enterprise,  hadb^e^L^rippled  by  successive  blows  from  the  Assyr- 
ian kings,  who  just  now  wei^e  pushing  out  their  empire  to  the 
Mediterranean.  This  laming  of  the  mercantile  activity  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon  left  their  trade  and  that  of  theiL^colonies  a  prey  to  the 
Greeks.  It  should  be  noticed,  however,  that  after  the  decline  of 
the  cities  of  Phoenicia,  the  Phoenician  colony  of  Carthage  on  the 
African  shore  gradually  grew  into  a  new  center  of  Semitic  trade 
and  colonizing  activity,  and  practically  shut  the  Greeks  out  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  Mediterranean  lying  west  of  Sicily. 

Another  circumstance  was  favorable  to  Greek  colonization. 
The  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  were  at  this  time,  speaking 
broadly,  unoccupied.  The  great  kingdoms  of  later  times,  Lydia, 
Persia,  Macedonia,  and  Rome,  had  not  yet  arisen,  or  were  still 
inland  powers,  and  indifferent  respecting  the  coast  lands ;  while 
the  barbarian  tribes  whose  territories  bordered  upon  the  sea  of 
course  attached  no  special  value  to  the  harbors  and  commercial 


THE   CHALCIDIAN    COLONIES  155 

sites  along  their  coasts.  But  these  peoples  were  advancing  in 
culture  and  were  beginning  to  feel  a  desire  for  the  manufactures  01 
foreign  lands,  and  consequently  had  a  strong  motive  for  welcoming 
the  Greek  traders  to  their  shores. 

164.  The  Chalcidian  Colonies  (about  750-650  b.c).  —  An  early 
and  favorite  colonizing  ground  of  the  Greeks  was  the  Macedonian 
coast.  Here  a  triple  promontory  juts  far  out  into  the  ^gean. 
On  this  broken  shore,  Chalcis  of  Euboea,  with  the  help,  however, 
of  emigrants  from  other  cities,  founded  so  many  colonies  —  thirty- 
two  owned  her  as  their  mother  city —  that  the  land  became  known 
as  Chalcidice.^ 

One  of  the  chief  attractions  of  this  shore  to  the  Greek  colonists 
and  traders  was  the  rich  copper,  silver,  and  gold  deposits  found  in 
the  mountains  of  the  promontory  and  of  the  back  country.  The 
immense  slag  heaps  found  there  to-day  bear  witness  to  the  former 
importance  of  the  mining  industry  of  the  region.  The  hills,  too, 
were  clothed  with  heavy  forests  which  furnished  excellent  timber 
for  shipbuilding,  and  this  was  an  important  item  in  the  trade  of 
the  Chalcidian  colonies,  since  timber  in  many  parts  of  Greece 
proper  was  far  from  abundant. 

The  Chalcidian  colonies  exercised  a  very  important  influence 
upon  the  course  and  development  of  Greek  history.  Their  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  culture  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
Through  them  it  was,  in  large  measure,  that  the  inland  tribes  of 
Macedonia,  particularly  the  ruling  class,  became  so  deeply  tinc- 
tured with  Hellenic  civihzation.  It  was  this  circumstance  which, 
as  we  shall  learn,  gave  special  historical  significance  to  the  Mace- 
donian conquests  of  later  times,  making  them  as  it  did  something 
more  than  the  mere  destructive  forays  of  barbarians  (sees.  277 
and  284). 

165.  Colonies  on  the  Hellespont,  the  Propontis,  and  the  Bos- 
porus.— A  second  region  full  of  attractions  to  the  colonists  of 
the  enterprising  commercial  cities  of  the  mother  country  was  that 
embracing   the  Hellespont  and  the  Bosporus,  together  with  the 

5  Potidaea,  however,  one  of  the  most  important  cities  in  Chalcidice,  was  a  colony 
of  Corinth. 


156  THE   AGE   OF    GREEK  COLONIZATION 

connecting  sheet  of  water  known  to  the  Greeks  as  the  Propontis. 
These  water  channels,  forming  as  they  do  the  gateway  to  the 
Northern  world,  early  drew  the  attention  of  the  Greek  traders. 

Here  was  founded,  among  other  cities,  Byzantium  (658  B.C.). 
The  city  was  built,  under  the  special  direction  of  the  Delphian 
oracle,  on  one  of  the  most  magnificent  sites  for  a  great  emporium 
that  the  ancient  world  afforded.  It  was  destined  to  a  long  and 
checkered  history. 

166.  Colonies  in  the  Euxine  Region. — The  tale  of  the  Argo- 
nauts (sec.  129)  shows  that  in  prehistoric  times  the  Greeks  proba- 
bly carried  on  trade  with  the  shores  of  the  Euxine.  The  chief 
products  of  the  region  were  fish,  grain,  and  cattle,  besides  timber, 
gold,  copper,  and  iron. 

The  fisheries,  particularly,  of  the  region  formed  the  basis  of  a 
very  active  and  important  trade.  The  fish  markets  of  the  com- 
mercial Ionian  cities  of  European  Greece  and  of  Asia  Minor,  in 
which  fish  formed  a  chief  article  of  diet  among  the  poorer  classes, 
were  supplied  in  large  measure  by  the  products  of  these  northern 
fisheries.  So  large  was  the  trade  in  cereals  that  we  may  call  this 
Black  Sea  region  the  granary  of  Greece,  in  the  same  sense  that 
North  Africa  and  Egypt  were  in  later  times  called  the  granary  of 
Rome. 

Still  another  object  of  commerce  in  the  Euxine  was  slaves. 
This  region  was  a  sort  of  slave  hunters'  land  —  the  Africa  of  Hellas. 
It  suppHed  to  a  great  degree  the  slave  markets  of  the  Hellenic 
world.  In  the  modern  Caucasian  slave  trade  of  the  Mohammedan 
sultans  we  may  recognize  a  survival  of  a  commerce  which  was 
active  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago. 

Eighty  colonies  in  the  Euxine  are  said  to  have  owned  Miletus 
as  their  mother  city.  The  coast  of  the  sea  became  so  crowded 
with  Greek  cities,  and  the  whole  region  was  so  astir  with  Greek 
enterprise,  that  the  Greeks  came  to  regard  this  quarter  of  the 
world,  once  looked  upon  as  so  remote  and  inhospitable,  as  almost 
a  part  of  the  home  country. 

167.  Colonies  on  the  Ionian  Islands  and  the  Adjacent  Shores.  — 
At  the  same  time  that  the  tide  of  Hellenic  migration  was  flowing 


COLONIES   ON   THE   IONIAN    ISLANDS 


157 


towards  the  north  it  was  also  flowing  towards  the  west  and  covering 
the  Ionian  Islands  and  the  coasts  of  Southern  Italy  and  Sicily. 

The  group  of  islands  lying  oif  the  western  coast  of  Greece, 
known  as  the  Ionian  Isles,  together  with  the  adjacent  continental 
shores,  formed  an  important  region  of  Greek  colonization.  Corinth, 
as  was  natural  from  her  position,  took  a  prominent  partjn  the 


Magna  Gr^xia  and  Sicily 

establishment  of  colonies  here.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
her  settlements  was  Corcyra.  The  relations  of  this  colony  to  its 
mother  city  were  very  unfilial,  and  a  quarrel  between  them  was  one 
of  the  immediate  causes  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  (sec.  232). 

The  colonies  on  the  islands  in  the  Ionian  Sea  formed  the  half- 
way station  to  Italy,  and  it  was  by  the  way  of  these  settlements 
that  Italy  during  the  era  of  colonization  received  a  large  and 
steady  stream  of  immigrants. 


158 


THE   AGE    OF   GREEK   COLONIZATION 


i68.  Colonies  in  Southern  Italy  :  Magna  Graecia.  —  At  this  time, 
Italy,  with  the  exception  of  Etruria  on  the  western  coast,  was  occu- 
pied by  tribes  that  had  made  but  little  progress  in  culture.  The 
power  of  Rome  had  not  yet  risen.  Hence  the  land  was  practically 
open  to  settlement  by  any  superior  or  enterprising  race. 

Consequently  it  is  not  surprising  that  during  the  Greek  coloniz- 
ing era  Southern  Italy  became  so  thickly  set  with  Greek  cities  as 
to  become  known  as  Magna  Grcecia,  "  Great  Greece."  Here 
were  founded  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  the 
important  city  of  Taras,  the  Tarentum  of  the  Romans  (708  B.C.); 
the  ^olian  city  of  Sybaris  (721  b.c),  noted  for  the  luxurious  life 
of  its  citizens,  whence  our 
term  Sybarite,  meaning  a  ^^ 
voluptuary/    the    G:reat 


-Ruined  Temples  at 

P^STUM 

Paestum  was  the  Greek  Posidonia,  in 
Lucania.  These  ruins  form  the  most 
noteworthy  existing  monuments  of 
the  early  Greek  occupation  of  South- 
ern Italy 

Croton  (711  B.C.),  distinguished 
for  its  schools  of  philosophy  and  its  victors  in  the  Olympian 
games;  and  Rhegium  (about  715  B.C.),  the  mother  of  statesmen, 
historians,  poets,  and  artists. 

Upon  the  western  coast  of  the  peninsula  was  the  city  of  Cumae 
(Cyme),  famed  throughout  the  Grecian  and  the  Roman  world 

6  Sybaris  is  said,  doubtless  with  exaggeration,  to  have  been  able  to  raise  an  army, 
counting  subject  allies,  of  three  hundred  thousand  men.  In  a  war  with  Croton  it  was 
wholly  destroyed,  all  its  inhabitants  being  either  killed  or  driven  into  exile,  and  the 
lands  of  the  city  being  taken  possession  of  by  the  conquerors  (510  B.C.).  This  destruc- 
tion of  so  populous  and  wealthy  a  city  was  one  of  the  heaviest  calamities  which  up  to 
that  time  had  befallen  the  Hellenic  world. 


COLONIES   IN    SICILY   AND   GAUL 


159 


on  account  of  its  oracle  and  sibyl.  This  was  probably  the  oldest 
Greek  colony  in  Italy. 

The  chief  importance  of  the  cities  of  Magna  Graecia  for  civili- 
zation springs  from  their  relations  to  Rome.  Through  them,  with- 
out doubt,  the  early  Romans  received  many  primary  elements  of 
culture,  deriving  thence  probably  their  knowledge  of  letters  as 
well  as  of  Greek  constitutional  law. 

169.  Greek  Colonies  in  Sicily  and  Southern  GauL — The  island 
of  Sicily  is  in  easy  sight  from  the  Italian  shore.  About  the  same 
time  that  the  southern  part  of  the  peninsula  was  being  filled  with 
Greek  colonists,  this  island  was  also  receiving  a  swarm  of  immi- 
grants. Here  was 
planted  by  the  Do- 
rian Corinth  the  city 
of  Syracuse  (734 
B.C.),  which,  before 
Rome  had  become 
great,  waged  war  on 
equal  terms  with 
Carthage.      Upon 

the  southern  shore  of  the  island  arose  Agrigentum  (Acragas), 
which  became,  after  Syracuse,  the  most  important  of  the  Greek 
cities  in  Sicily. 

Sicily  was  the  most  disorderly  and  tumultuous  part  of  Hellas. 
It  was  the  "  wild  West "  of  the  Hellenic  world.  It  was  the  land 
of  romance  and  adventure,  and  seems  to  have  drawn  to  itself 
the  most  untamed  and  venturesome  spirits  among  the  Greeks. 
To  the  grounds  of  disorder  and  strife  existing  among  the  Greek 
colonists  themselves  were  added  two  other  elements  of  discord, 
—  the  native  barbarians  and  the  Phoenicians. 

That  part  of  Gaul  which  touches  the  Mediterranean  where 
the  Rhone  empties  into  the  sea  was  another  region  occupied 
by  Greek  colonists.  A  chief  attraction  here  was  the  amber  and 
tin  brought  overland  from  the  Baltic  and  from  Britain.  Here 
were  estabhshed  several  colonies,  chief  among  which  was  Mas- 
salia  (about  600  B.C.),  the  modern  Marseilles. 


Fig.  79.  —  Coin  of  Cyrene 


l6o  THE  AGE  OF  GREEK  COLONIZATION 

170.  Colonies  in  North  Africa  and  Egypt:  Cyrene  and  Nau- 
cratis.  —  In  the  sevejith  century  B.C.  the  Greeks,  in  obedience 
to  the  commands  of  the  Delphian  Apollo,  founded  on  the 
African  coast,  nearly  opposite  the  island  of  Crete,  the  important 
colony  of  Cyrene,  which  became  the  metropohs  of  a  large  dis- 
trict known  as  Cyrenaica.  The  site  of  the  city  was  one  of  the 
best  on  the  African  shore. 

In  the  Nile  delta  the  Greeks  early  estabhshed  the  important 
station  of  Naucratis.  This  colony  was  at  the  height  of  its  pros- 
perity in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  although  it  certainly  existed  as 
early  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century.  It  was  the  gate- 
way through  which  Hellenic  influences  passed  into  Egypt  and 
Egyptian  influences  passed  out  into  Greece. 

171.  Place  of  the  Colonies  in  Grecian  History. — The  history 
of  dispersed  Hellas  is  closely  interwoven  with  that  of  continental 

Hellas.  In  truth,  a  large  part 
of  the  history  of  Greece  would 
be  unintelligible  should  we  lose 
sight  of  Greater  Greece,  just 
as  a  large  part  of  the  history 
of  Europe  since  the  seven- 
teenth century  cannot  be  un- 
FiG.  80.  — Coin  OF  Corinth  ,      .,       .       i  1   j 

derstood  without  a  knowledge 

of  Greater  Europe.  In  colonial  interests,  rivalries,  and  jealousies 
we  shall  find  the  inciting  cause  of  many  of  the  contentions  and 
wars  between  the  cities  of  the  home  land. 

Indeed,  the  more  we  learn  of  the  relations  of  the  colonies  to 
their  mother  cities  and  to  the  native  races  of  the  countries  in 
which  they  were  planted,  the  more  clearly  shall  we  recognize 
the  vast  significance  for  Greek  history  —  and  for  universal  his- 
tory as  well  —  of  the  colonization  movement  which  we  have  been 
tracing.  In  its  influence  upon  the  social  and  intellectual  devel- 
opment of  mankind  it  may  w^ell  be  compared  to  that  expansion 
of  the  English  race  which  has  estabhshed  peoples  of  English 
speech  and  culture  in  so  many  lands  and  upon  so  many  shores 
of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  World. 


REFERENCES  l6l 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  — Herodotus,  iv.  150-153  and  156-159; 
on  the  part  taken  by  the  Delphian  oracle  in  the  founding  of  Cyrene. 

References.  —  Curtius,  vol.  i,  pp.  432-500.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.), 
vol.  iii,  pp.  163-220  and  247-275.  Abbott,  vol.  i,  pp.  333-365.  Holm, 
vol.  i,  chap.  xxi.  Cox,  vol.  i,  pp.  141-183.  Greenidge,  Handbook  of  Greek 
Constittitional  History,  chap,  iii,  sec.  i.  Oman,  History  of  Greece,  chap.  ix. 
Bury,  History  of  Greece,  chap.  ii.  Allcroft  and  Masom,  Early  Grecian 
History,  chap.  vi.     Timayexis,  vol.  i,  pt.  ii,  chap.  v. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  Delphian  oracle  and  Greek  col- 
onization. 2.  Life  in  the  Greek  colonies.  3.  A  comparison  of  Greek  and 
Roman  colonies.  4.  Colonies  of  subjects  compared  with  colonies  of  citi- 
zens. See  Freeman's  Greater  Greece  and  Greater  Britaifi.  5.  The  decree 
establishing  Brea.  See  Greenidge.  Advanced  students  may  consult  Hicks' 
Historical  Inscriptions,  n.  29. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE   AGE  OF  THE  TYRANTS 

(About  650-500  B.C.) 

172 .  The  Character  and  Origin  of  the  Greek  Tyrannies.  —  As 

we  have  seen,  the  Homeric  poems  represent  the  preferred  form 
of  government  in  prehistoric  times  as  having  been  a  patriarchal 
monarchy  (sec.  134).  By  the  dawn  of  the  historic  period,  how- 
ever, these  paternal  monarchies  of  the  Achaean  age  had  given 
place,  in  almost  all  the  chief  cities,  to  oligarchies  or  aristocracies. 
The  power  of  the  "Zeus-born"  king  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  nobles  of  his  former  council. 

A  httle  later,  just  as  the  Homeric  monarchies  had  been  super- 
seded by  oligarchies,  so  were  these  in  many  of  the  Greek  cities 
superseded  by  tyrannies. 

By  the  term  tyrannos  (tyrant)  the  Greeks  did  not  mean  one 
who  ruled  harshly,  but  simply  one  who  held  the  supreme_author- 
ity  in  the  state  illegally.  Some  of  the  Greek  tyrants  were  mild 
and  beneficent  rulers,  though  too  often  they  were  all  that  the 
name  implies  among  us.  Sparta  was  almost  the  only  important 
state  which  did  not  at  one  time  or  another  fall  into  the  hands  of 
a  tyrant. 

The  so-called  Age  of  the  Tyrants  lasted,  speaking  in  a  general 
way,  from  about  650  to  500  B.C.,  although  we  hear  of  tyrants^^ 
ruling  in  some  cities  long  before  the  earHer  and  in  others  long 
after  the  later  date. 

The  causes  that  led  to  the  overthrow  in  so  many  cities  of 
oligarchic  rule  and  the  establishment  of  government  by  a  single 
person  were  various.  A  main  cause,  however,  of  the  rise  of 
tyrannies  is  found  in  the  misrule  of  the  oligarchs,  into  whose 
hands  the  royal  authority  of  earlier  times  had  passed.  By  their 
selfish,  cruel,  and   arbitrary  administration   of  the  government, 

162 


GREEK  FEELING  TOWARDS  THE  TYRANTS       163 

they  provoked  the  revolt  of  the  people  and  invited  destruction. 
The  factions,  too,  into  which  they  were  divided  weakened  their 
authority  and  paved  the  way  for  their  fall. 

Working  with  the  above  causes  to  undermine  the  influence 
of  the  oligarchs,  was  the  advance  in  intelligence  and  wealth  of 
the  trading  classes  in  the  mercantile  and  commercial  states  of 
Greece,  especially  in  the  Ionian  cities,  and  their  resulting  discon- 
tent with  the  oppressive  rule  of  the  aristocratic  families  and  desire 
to  participate  in  the  government. 

Generally  the  person  setting  up  a  tyranny  was  some  ambitious 
disappointed  member  of  the  aristocracy,  who  had  held  himself 
out  as  the  champion  of  the  people,  and  who,  aided  by  them, 
had  succeeded  in  overturning  the  hated  government  of  the 
oligarchs. 

173.  The  Greek  Feeling  towards  the  Tyrants. — The  tyrants 
sat  upon  unstable  thrones.  The  Greeks,  always  lovers  of  free- 
dom, had  an  inextinguishable  hatred  of  these  despots ;  and  of 
course  the  nobles  who  were  excluded  from  participation  in  public 
affairs,  and  who  were  often  dealt  harshly  with  by  the  tyrants  and 
driven  into  exile,  were  continually  plotting  against  them.  Fur- 
thermore, the  odious  vices  and  atrocious  crimes  of  some  of  them 
caused  the  whole  class  to  be  regarded  with  the  utmost  abhor- 
rence, —  so  much  so  that  tyrannicide  (that  is,  the  killing  of  a 
tyrant)  came  to  be  regarded  by  the  Greeks  as  a  supremely  vir- 
tuous act.  The  slayer  of  a  tyrant  was  looked  upon  as  a  devoted 
patriot  and  preeminent  hero  (sec.  187). 

Consequently  the  tyrannies  were,  as  a  rule,  short-lived,  rarely 
lasting  longer  than  three  generations.  They  were  usually  vio- 
lently overthrown,  and  the  old  oligarchies  reestablished,  or  de- 
mocracies set  up  in  their  place.  Speaking  broadly,  the  Dorian 
cities  preferred  aristocratic,  and  the  Ionian  cities  democratic, 
government. 

Sparta,  which  state,  as  has  been  noted,  never  fell  into  the 
hands  of  a  tyrant,  was  very  active  in  aiding  those  cities  that  had 
been  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  their  government  usurped  by  des- 
pots to  drive  out  the  usurpers  and  to  reestablish  their  aristocratic 


l64  THE  AGE   OF   THE  TYRANTS 

constitutions.^  Athens,  as  we  shall  see,  on  escaping  from  the 
tyranny  under  which  she  for  a  time  rested,  —  that  of  Pisistratus 
and  his  sons  (sees.  185-187),  —  became  the  representative  and 
ardent  champion  of  democracy. 

174.  Typical  Tyrants:  Periander  of  Corinth  (625-585  B.C.). 
—  To  repeat  in  detail  the  traditional  accounts  of  all  the  tyrants 
that  arose  in  the  different  cities  of  Hellas  during  the  age  of  the 
t}Tannies  would  be  both  wearisome  and  unprofitable ;  wearisome 
because  the  tales  of  the  various  despots  possess  a  singular  same- 
ness, and  unprofitable  because  these  stories  are  often  manifestly 
colored  and  distorted  by  popular  prejudice  and  hatred,  since  the 
Greeks  of  a  later  time  could  hardly  speak  temperately  of  a 
t\Tant,  so  unutterably  odious  to  them  was  merely  the  name  itself. 
We  shall  therefore  simply  give  in  brief  form  the  story  of  two  or 
three  of  these  unconstitutional  rulers,  who  may  be  taken  as  fair 
representatives  of  their  class. 

Among  the  most  noted  of  the  t}Tants  was  Periander  of  Corinth 
(625-585  B.C.).  According  to  Herodotus,  Periander  learned  from 
Thrasybulus,  t\Tant  of  Miletus,  the  art  of  pla>ing  the  t\Tant  safely. 
Ha^-ing  sent  a  messenger  to  that  despot  to  ask  him  respecting  the 
best  way  to  conduct  his  government,  Thrasybulus  is  said  to  have 
conducted  the  envoy  to  a  field  of  grain,  and,  as  they  walked 
through  it,  to  have  broken  off  and  thro\\Ti  away  such  heads  as 
hfted  themselves  above  the  others.  Then,  without  a  word,  he 
dismissed  the  messenger.  The  man,  returning  to  Periander, 
reported  that  he  had  been  able  to  secure  from  Thrasybulus  not 
a  single  word  of  ad^^ce,  but  told  how  singularly  he  had  acted  in 
destro\-ing  the  best  of  his  crop  of  grain.  Periander  understood 
the  parable,  and  straightway  began  to  destroy  all  those  citizens 
whose  heads  overtopped  the  others. 

Periander  maintained  a  court  which  rivaled  in  splendor  that 
of  an  Oriental  potentate.     Like  many  another  tyrant,  he  was  a 

1  Her  aim  in  this  policy  was  to  strengthen  her  own  influence  in  these  cities  by 
preserving  in  them  institutions  like  her  own,  and  by  keeping  the  control  of  their 
public  affairs  in  the  hands  of  a  few  famihes  who  should  be  under  the  necessity  of 
looking  to  her  for  the  support  of  their  authority. 


POLYCRATES,  TYRANT    OF    SAMOS  165 

generous  patron  of  artists  and  literary  men.  He  was  also,  either 
through  piety  or  through  policy,  a  hberal  patron  of  the  gods.  He 
re\ived  the  Isthmian  games,  adding  to  the  festival  g}-mnastic  con- 
tests, and  made  splendid  votive  offerings  to  the  temples  at  Olympia. 

175.  Polycrates,  Tyrant  of  Samos  (535-522  B.C.). — Another 
tvrant  whose  deeds  were  noised  throughout  the  Hellenic  world,  and 
the  ^icissitudes  of  whose  career  left  a  deep  impression  upon  the 
Greek  imagination,  was  Polycrates  of  Samos  (535-522  B.C.). 

Polycrates  established  his  rule  in  Samos  in  the  way  so  common 
with  the  tATants,  —  by  overturning  through  Aiolence  the  govern- 
ment of  his  own  order,  the  ohgarchs.  HaAing  made  Samos  his 
stronghold,  Polycrates  conquered  many  of  the  surrounding  islands 
in  the  .^gean,  together  with  several  of  the  cities  of  the  Asian 
mainland,  and  made  himself  the  head  of  a  maritime  empire,  which 
he  maintained  %\-ith  a  fleet  that  was  the  largest  any  Greek  state 
had  up  to  that  time  collected. 

Like  Periander,  Polycrates  maintained  a  magnificent  court, 
to  which,  among  other  persons  of  fame  and  learning,  he  inAited 
the  celebrated  l\Tic  poet  Anacreon,  a  native  of  Ionia,  who  seems 
to  have  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  gay  and  easy  life  of  a  courtier, 
and  who,  inspired  by  the  congenial  atmosphere  of  his  patron's 
palace,  sung  so  voluptuously  of  love  and  wine  and  festi\-it}-  that 
the  term  Anacreontic  has  come  to  be  used  to  characterize  all 
poetr)'  over-redolent  of  these  themes. 

The  astonishing  good  fortune  and  uninterrupted  prosperit}-  of 
the  t}Tant  awakened,  according  to  Herodotus,  the  alarm  of  his 
friend  and  ally,  Amasis,  king  of  Eg>-pt,  who  became  conduced  that 
such  felicit}-  in  the  lot  of  a  mortal  must  awaken  the  emy  of  the 
gods  (sec.  145),  and  accordingly  broke  off  his  alliance  with  him. 

The  issue  justified  the  worst  fears  of  Amasis.  Polycrates  was 
lured  to  the  Asian  shore  by  a  Persian  satrap,  a  bitter  enemy  of  his, 
and  put  to  a  shameful  and  cruel  death. 

176.  Benefits  conferred  by  the  Tyrants  upon  Greek  Civilization. 
—  The  rule  of  the  t)-rants  conferred  upon  Greek  ciWlization  some 
benefits  which,  perhaps,  could  not  have  been  so  well  secured 
imder  any  other  form  of  government. 


l66  THE   AGE    OF    THE    TYRANTS. 

Thus  the  tyrants,  through  the  connections  which  they  naturally 
formed  with  foreign  kings  and  despots,  brQke_Jh^_Jsola^i£n__m_ 
which  the  Greek  cities  up  to  this  time  had  lived.  Pheidon  of 
Argos  —  a  tyrant  of  the  better  class  —  was  in  close  relations  with 
the  Lydian  kings;  and  Polycrates,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  friend 
and  ally  of  Amasis,  king  of  Egypt.  These  connections  between 
the  courts  of  the  tyrants  and  those  of  the  rulers  of  Oriental  coun- 
tries opened  the  cities  of  the  Hellenic  world_to  the  influences  of 
those  lands  of  cultoe^  vvidpnerriEeii^horizon,  and^nlarged  the 
sphere  of  their  commercial  enterprise. 

Again,  the  tyrants,  some  ot  them  at  least,  as  for  example  Peri- 
ander  of  Corinth,  Polycrates  of  Samos,  and  Pisistratus  of  Athens, 
were  liberal  patrons  of  art  and  liter^re.  Poetry  and  music 
flourished  in  the  congemaTanmJspEere  of  their  luxurious  courts, 
while  architecture  was  given  a  great  impulse  by  the  public  build- 
ings and  works  which  many  of  them  undertook  with  a  view  of 
embeUishing  their  capitals,  or  of  winning  the  favor  of  the  poorer 
classes  by  creating  opportunities  for  their  employment.  Thus  it 
happened  that  the  age  of  the  tyrants  was  a  period  marked  by  an 
unusually  rapid  advance  of  many  of  the  Greek  cities  in  their 
artistic,  intellectual,  and  industrial  life. 

In  the  poUtical  realm  also  the  tyrants  rendered  eminent  serv- 
ices to  Greece.  By  dep^essin^e^^ligaidlieiarid  lifting  the  people 
they  created  a  sort  of  political  e£uality_bejtween  these  rival  ordejs 
of  society,  and  thereby  helped  to  pave  the  way  for  the  incoming 
of  democracy. 

In  still  another  way  —  in  the  way  implied  in  Emerson's  adage 
to  the  effect  that  bad  kings  help  us,  if  only  they  are  bad  enough 
did  the  tyrants  render  a  great  service  to  the  cause  of  constitu- 
tional government  in  the  Greek  cities.  As  we  have  seen,  they 
rendered  rule  by  a  single  person  unrestrained  by  law  inexpres- 
sibly odious  to  the  Greeks,  and  thus  deepened  their  love  for  con- 
stitutional government  and  made  them  extremely  watchful  of  their 
freedom.  The  bare  suspicion  that  any  person  was  scheming  to 
make  himself  a  tyrant  was  often  enough  to  insure  his  immediate 
expulsion  from  the  city  or  the  infliction  of  some  worse  punishment. 


REFERENCES  167 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Herodotus  ;  consult  Index  for  stories 
of  Cypselus,  Polycrates,  and  Periander.     Pausanias,  v.  17-19. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vols,  i  and  iii.  Consult  Index  under 
Tyratmis.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  378-421.  Abbott,  vol.  i, 
pp.  366-397,  and  Introduction  to.  vol.  ii.  Holm,  vol.  i,  chap.  xxii. 
DuNCKER,  vol.  ii,  pp.  295-431.  Fowler,  The  City-State  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  chaps,  iv  and  v.  Mahaffy,  Problems  in  Greek  History, 
chap.  iv.  Cox,  Lives  of  Greek  Statesmen,  "  Polykrates."  Greenidge, 
Handbook  of  Greek  Constitutional  History,  chap.  ii.  BuRY,  History  of 
Greece,  pp.  146-157.     Oman,  History  of  Greece,  chap.  x. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  Phalaris  of  Agrigentum.  2.  The 
Tyrants  as  patrons  of  religion,  art,  and  literature.  3.  The  chest  of  the 
Cypselids.  See  above,  reference  to  Pausanias,  for  description.  Abbott  also 
may  be  consulted.     4.  Tyranny  as  a  stage  in  political  development. 


Y\G.  8i.  —  Athens.     (From  a  photograph) 


CHAPTER   XVII 
THE  HISTORY  OF  ATHENS   UP   TO   THE   PERSIAN   WARS 

177.  The  Attic  People. — The  population  of  Attica  in  historic 
times  was  essentially  Ionian  in  race,  but  there  were  in  it  strains 
of  other  Hellenic  stocks,  besides  some  non-Hellenic  elements  as 
well.  This  mixed  origin  of  the  population  is  believed  to  be  one 
secret  of  the  versatile  yet  well-balanced  character  which  distin- 
guished the  Attic  people  above  all  other  branches  of  the  Hellenic 
family.  It  is  not  the  comparatively  pure,  but  the  mixed  races, 
like  the  English  people,  that  have  made  the  largest  contributions 
to  civilization.^ 

178.  The  Site  of  Athens.  —  Four  or  five  miles  from  the  sea,  a 
little  hill,  about  one  thousand  feet  in  Jength  and  half  as  many 
in  width,  rises  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  plains  of  Attica.  The  security  afforded  by  this  eminence 
doubtless  led  to  its  selection  as  a  stronghold  by  the  early  settlers 
of  the  Attic  plains.  Here  a  few  buildings,  perched  upon  the  sum- 
mit of  the  rock  and  surrounded  by  a  palisade,  constituted  the  be- 
ginning of  the  capital  whose  fame  has  spread  over  all  the  world. 

1  One  important  fact  connected  with  the  prehistoric  settlement  of  Attica  is  that 
the  inhabitants  seem  never  to  have  been  subjected  by  a  foreign  race,  as  happened  in 
the  case  of  most  of  the  districts  of  the  Peloponnesus ;  for  we  find  no  class  in  Attica 
corresponding,  for  instance,  to  the  Helots  of  Laconia.  This  circumstance  had  much 
to  do  in  determining  the  course  of  Attic  history. 

168 


THE   EARLY   GOVERNMENT  169 

179.  The  Kings  of  Athens.  —  In  the  Prehistoric  Age  Athens 
was  ruled  by  kings,  like  all  the  other  Grecian  cities.  The  names 
of  Theseus  and  Codrus  are  the  most  noted  of  the  regal  line. 

To  Theseus  tradition  ascribed  the  work  of  uniting  the  separate 
Attic  \dllages  or  strongholds,  twelve  in  number,  into  a  single  city- 
state.  This  prehistoric  union,  however  or  by  whomsoever  effected, 
laid  the  basis  of  the  greatness  of  Athens.  How  much  the  union 
meant  for  Athens,  how  it  stood  related  to  her  ascendancy  after- 
wards in  Greece,  is  perhaps  shown  by  the  history  of  Thebes. 
Although  holding  the  same  relation  to  Bceotia  that  Athens  held 
to  Attica,  Thebes  never  succeeded  in  uniting  the  Boeotian  towns 
into  a  single  city-state,  and  consequently  fretted  away  her  strength 
in  constant  bickerings  and  wars  with  them. 

180.  The  Archons.  —  Codrus  was  the  last  hereditary  king  of    f 
Athens.     His  successor,  elected  by  the    nobles  from  the    royal 
family,  was  simply  ruler  for  Hfe.     There  were  twelve  life  kings,         *^ 
and  then  (in  752  B.C.)  the  authority  of  the  regal  office  was  still 
further  diminished  by  limiting  the  rule  of  the  king  to  ten  years^  J 
Forty  years  later  the  office  was  thrown  open  to  all  the  nobles,    ^^ 
and  soon  afterwards  (in  682  B.C.)  the  term  of  office  was  reduced 

to  one  year.  As  the  power  of  the  king  was  diminished,  his  old- 
time  duties  were  assigned  to  magistrates  chosen  by  the  nobles 
from  among  themselves.  The  outcome  of  these  changes  was 
that  a  Uttle  after  the  opening  of  the  seventh  century  we  find  a 
bboardofnin£jpersons,  called  Archons,  of  whom  the  king  in  a  sub-  {q 
ordinate  position  was  one,  standing  at  the  head  of  the  Athenian 
state.     The  old  Homeric  monarchy  had  become  an  oligarchy. 

181.  The  Council  of  the  Areopagus  and  the  General  Assembly. 
—  Besides  the  board  of  Archons  there  was  in  the  Athenian  state 
at  this  time  a  very  important  tribunal,  called  the  Council  of  the 
Areopagus.^  This  council  was  composed  excJu^ivelyofex-.-\rcjions, 
^nd^cgiiseauentlv  was  a  ^urely^aristocr^^  Its  members 
held  office  for^feT^Tlie  duty  of  the  council  was  to  see  that  the 
laws  wei:e_duly_pbserved,  and  to  judge  and  punish  transgressors. 

2  So  called  from  the  name  of  the  hill  "Apetos  7rd7os,  "  Hill  of  Ares,"  which  was 
the  assembling  place  of  the  council. 


170  HISTORY   OF  ATHENS 

There  was  no  appeal  from  its  decisions.  This  council  was,  at  the 
opening  of  the  historic  period,  the  real  power  in  the  Athenian  state. 
In  addition  to  the  board  of  Archons  and  the  Council  of  the 
Areopagus,  there  is  some  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  general 
assembly  (*EKKXr)<TLa,  Ecdesia)^  in  which  all  those  who  served  in 
the  heavy-armed  forces  of  the  state  had  a  place.^ 

182.  Classes  in  the  Athenian  State.  — The  leading  class  in  the 
Athenian  state  were  the  nobles,  orEupatrids.  These  men  were 
wealthy  landowners,  a  large  part  of  the  best  soil  of  Attica,  it  is  said, 
being  held  by  them.  As  already  shown,  all  poHtical  authority  was 
in  their  hands. 

Beneath  the  nobles  we  find  the  body  of  the  nominally  free 
inhabitants.  Many  of  them  were  tenants  living  in  a  state  little 
removed  from  serfdom  upon  the  estates  of  the  wealthy  nobles. 
They  paid  rent  in  kind  to  their  landlords,  and  in  case  of  failure 
to  pay,  they,  together  with  their  wives  and  children,  might  be 
seized  by  the  proprietor  and  sold  as  slaves.  Others  owned  their 
httle  farms,  but  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  had  fallen 
in  debt  to  the  wealthy  class,  their  fields  being  heavily  mortgaged 
to  the  money  lenders.  Thus  because  of  their  wretched  economic 
condition,  as  well  as  because  of  their  exclusion  from  the  govern- 
ment, these  classes  among  the  common  people  were  filled  with 
bitterness  towards  the  nobles  and  were  ready  for  revolution. 

183.  Draco's  Code  (621  b.c).  —  It  was  probably  to  quiet  the 
people  and  to  save  the  state  from  anarchy^  that  the  nobles  at 
this  time  appointed  a  person  named  Draco,  one  of  their  own 
order,  to  write  out  and  publish  the  lavvs.^ 

3  The  meetings  of  the  Ecclesia  in  early  times,  until  the  construction  of  the 
Theater  of  Dionysus  (sec.  315),  were  held  on  a  low  hill  to  the  west  of  the  Acropolis, 
supposed  to  be  identical  with  the  so-called  Pnyx  Hill  of  to-day.  On  the  Pnyx  Hill 
may  be  seen  a  platform  mounted  by  steps,  the  whole  cut  out  of  the  native  rock  (Fig.  86). 
This  rock  pulpit  is  believed  to  be  the  celebrated  bema  of  the  Athenian  orators. 

4  Taking  advantage  of  the  unrest  in  the  state,  Cylon,  a  rich  and  ambitious  noble, 
had  just  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  seize  the  supreme  power  (the  Rebellion 
of  Cylon,  628  or  624  B.C.). 

6  Up  to  this  time  the  rules  and  customs  of  the  city^had  been  unwritten, ^nd  hence 

the  Eupatrid  magistrates,  who  alone  administered  the  laws,  could  and  often  did 

~~^  interpret  them  unfairly  in  favor  of  their  own  class.     The  people  demanded  that  the 

/    customs  should  be  put  in  writing  and  published,  so  that  every  one  might  know  just 

what  they  were. 


THE   REFORMS   OF   SOLON  171 

In  carrying  into  effect  his  commission,  Draco  probably  did 
little  more  than  reduce  existingjules_and  cusloms  to  a  definite 
and  written  form.  The  laws  as  published  were  very  severe. 
"Death  was  the  penalty  for  the  smallest  theft.  This  severity  of 
the  Draconian  laws  is  what  caused  a  later  Athenian  orator  to  say 
that  they  were  written,  "  q^Mnjjik^buMnJbl^^  But  Draco 

was  not  responsible  for  their  harshness  ;  he  made  them  no  harsher 
than  they  were  in  their  unwritten  form. 

There  was  one  real  and  great  defect  in  Draco's  work.    He  did/{ 
not  accompHsh  anything  in  the  way  of  land  or  economic  reform,  ,' 
and  thus  did  nothing  to  give  relief  to  those  who  were  struggling 
with  poverty  and  were  the  victims  of  the  harsh  laws  of  debt,^ 

184.  The  Reforms  of  Solon  (594  b.c).  —  Shortly  after  the 
Draconian  reforms  a  war  broke  out  between  Athens  and  Megara 
respecting  the  island  of  Salamis,  to  which  both  cities  laid  claim. 
The  struggle  finally  ended  in  favor  of  Athens,  but  the  burdens 
the  war  had  entailed  upon  the  Athenians  rendered  still  more 
unendurable  the  condition  of  the  poorer  classes,  and  made  still 
more  urgent  some  measures  of  relief. 

Once  more,  as  in  the  time  of  Draco,  the  Athenians  placed 
their  laws  injthe_hands_of_a^  sjrigle  man,  to  be  remodeled  as  he 
might  deem  best.  Solon,  a  man  held  in  high  esteem  by  all 
classes  on  account  of  distinguished  services  rendered  to  the  state, 
particularly  in  the  recent  war  with  Megara,  was  selected  to  dis- 
charge this  responsible  duty.  Solon  turned  his  attention  first  to 
reUeving  thejnisery  ofjhe^ebtor  class.  He  canceled  all  debts 
of  every  kind,  both  pubHc  and  private.'  Moreover,  that  there 
might  never  again  be  seen  in  Attica  the  spectacle  of  men  dragged 
off  in  chains  to  be  sold  as  slaves  in  payment  of  their  debts,  Solon 
>  prohibited  the  practice  of  securing  debts  on  the  body  of  the  debtor. 
No  Athenian  was  ever  after  this  sold  for  debt. 

6  The  authorities  are  not  agreed  as  to  whether  or  not  Draco  made  any  changes 
in  the  constitution. 

7  This  is  Aristotle's  account  of  the  matter  {Athenian  ConstiUition,  ch.  6). 
According  to  other  accounts,  Solon  annulled  only  debts  secured  on  land  or  on  the 
person  of  the  debtor.  Solon  also  reformed  the  monetary  system.  There  was  no 
connection  between  this  measure  and  theTancellation  of  debts,  as  was  generally  held 
before  the  recent  discovery  of  Aristotle's  work  on  the  Athenian  constitution. 


172 


HISTORY   OF   ATHENS 


Such  were  the  most  important  of  the  economic  reforms  of 
Solon.  His  constitutional  reforms  were  equally  wise  and  benefi- 
cent. The  Ecclesia,  or  popular  assembly,  was  at  this  time  com- 
posed of  all  those  persons  who  were  able  to  provide  themselves 
with  arms  and  armor ;  that  is  to  say,  of  all  the  members  of  the 
three"  highest  oTYhe  four  property  classes  into  which  the  people 
were  divided.  The  fourth  and  poorest  class,  the  Thetes,  were 
excluded.  Solon  opened  the  Ecclesia  to  them,  giving  them  the 
right  to  vote,  but  not  to  hold  office.  He  also  made  other  changes 
in  the  constitution  whereby  the  magistrates  became  responsible  (^ 
to  the  people,  who  henceforth  not  only  elected  them,  but  judged 
them  in  case  they  did  wrong. 

Besides  these  relief  measures  and  constitutional  reforms  Solon 
enacted  various  laws  hi  the  interest  of^nxorality  and  good  citizen- 
ship. The  most  noted  of  these  ordinances  is  his  so-called  Sedi- 
tion Law.  Observing  that  in  the  frequent  political  contentions 
which  disturbed  the  state,  some  of  the  citizens,  consulting  their 
personal  comfort,  refrained  from  taking  part  in  the  fight  between 

\  the  contending  factions,  Solon  rnade  a  law  to  the  effect  that^ny  / 

/    one  failing_to_take_sides_o^ 

citizenship  and  be  regarded  as  infamous.  Solon's  idea  seems  to 
have  been  that  by  this  measure  he  would  secure  the  more  general 
participation  in  political  affairs  of  "  good  citizens."  ^ 

185.  Pisistratus  makes  himself  Tyrant  of  Athens  (560  B.C.). 
—  The  reforms  of  Solon  naturally  worked  hardship  to  many  per- 
sons. These  became  bitter  enemies  of  the  new  order  of  things. 
Moreover,  the  reformed  constitution  failed  to  work  smoothly. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  situation,  Pisistratus,  an_ambitious 
noble  and  a  nephew  of  thejawgiver  Solon,  resolved  to  seize  the 
siipreme^^pmver.  This  man  courted  popular  favor  and  called 
himself  ''  the  friend  of  the  people."  His  uncle  Solon  seems  to 
have  been  almost  the  only  man  who  penetrated  his  designs.^  He 
told   the  citizens  that  Pisistratus  was  aiming   to  make   himself 

8  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  the  measures  urged  by  modern  reformers  to 
correct  the  evils  of  modern  democracy  is  found  one,  compulsory  voting,  which  in 
principle  is  wholly  like  the  Sedition  Law  of  the  Athenian  statesman. 


CHARACTER  OF  THE  RULE  OF  PISISTRATUS      173 

tyrant  of  Athens.  But  the  people  paid  no  heed  to  the  warnings 
of  Solon,  and  Pisistratus  was  left  undisturbed  to  consummate  his 
plot  against  the  liberties  of  the  city. 

One  day  having  inflicted  many  wounds  upon  himself,  he  drove 
his  chariot  hastily  into  the  public  square,  and  pretended  that  he 
had  been  thus  set  upon  by  the  nobles,  because  of  his  devotion 
to  the  people's  cause.  The  people  voted  him  a  guard  of  fifty 
men.  Under  cover  of  raising  this  company,  Pisistratus  gathered 
a  much  larger  force,  seized  the  Acropolis,  and  made  himself 
master  of  Athens.  Though  twice  expelled  from  the  city,  he  as 
often  returned  and  reinstated  himself  in  the  tyranny. 

186.  Character  of  the  Rule  of  Pisistratus.  —  Pisistratus  gave 
Athens  a  mild  rule,  and  under  him  the  city  enjoyed  a  period  of 
great  prosperity.  He  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  better  class 
of  GreeFlyrants,  and  much  that  was  said  in  an  earlier  chapter 
respecting  the  domestic  and  foreign  policies  of  these  rulers  finds 
illustration  in  the  circumstances  of  his  reign. 

It  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  general  policy  of  the  tyrants  to 
strengthen  themselves  by  means  of  foreign^^iances.     This  we 
find  Pisistratus  doing.     He  entered  into  alliances  with  _Sparta, 
Thebes,  Macedonia,  and  other  states.    Through  these  various  con-  1 
nections  Pisistratus  made  firmer  his  position  both  at  home  and  J 
abroad,  while  giving  at  the  same  time  a  wider  range  to  the  grow-  . 
ing  fame  of  Athens  and  enlarging  the  field  of  enterprise  of  the  ; 
Athenian  traders. 
/      But  before  all  else  was  the  tyrant,  in  imitation  of  so  many 
others  of  his  class,  a  liberal  patron  of  the  gods.     He  established 
what  was  known  as  the  Great  Panathenaea,  a  festival  celebrated 
every  fourth  year  in  honor  of  Athena,  the  patron  goddess  of 
Athens ;  ^  instituted  a  new  festival   in   honor  of  Dionysus ;  and 
began  at  Athens  the  erection  of  a  temple  to  Zeus  Olympius  on    > 
V  such  a  magnificent   scale  that  it  remained  unfinished  until  the  , 
(  resources  of  the  Roman  emperor  Hadrian,  nearly  seven  hundred  ^ 
I  years  later,  carried  the  colossal  building  to  completion. 

9  An  annual  festival  in  honor  of  the  same  patron  goddess  continued  to  be  cele 
brated  as  hitherto,  but  henceforth  was  known  as  the  Less  Panathenaea. 


174 


HISTORY   OF  ATHENS 


Nor  did  Pisistratus  fail  to  follow  the  traditional  policy  of  the 
tyrants  in  respect  to  the  patronage  of  letters.  He  invited  to  his 
court  the  Hterary  celebrities  of  the  day.  He  is  said  to  have  caused 
the  Homeric  poems  to^,e  collected  and  edited,  and  to  have  gath- 
ered at  Athens  the  first  publicliSrary ;  but  the  testimony  for  the 
truth  of  these  traditions  is  not  of  the  highest  character.     He  is 

said  also  to  have  added  to  the  em- 
bellishments of  the  Lyceum,  a  sort 
of  public  park  just  outside  the  city 
walls,  which  in  after  times  became 
one  of  the  favorite  resorts  of  the 
poets,  philosophers,  and  pleasure 
seekers  of  the  capital. 

187.  Expulsion  of  the  Tyrants 
from  Athens  (510  B.C.).  —  The  two 
sons  of  Pisistratus,  Hippias  and  Hip- 
parchus,  succeeded  to  his  power.  At 
first  they  emulated  the  example  of 
their  father,  and  Athens  flourished 
under  their  rule.  But  at  length  an 
unfortunate  event  gave  an  entirely 
different  tone  to  the  government. 
Marble  statues  in  the  Naples    Hipparchus,  having  insulted  a young 

Museum,  recognized  as  ancient  ,,  j  tt  j-         ^i  • 

'  ,    T°  .  .         .    noble  named  Harmodius,  this  man, 

copies  of  the  bronze  statues  set  '  ' 

up  at  Athens  in  commemoration    in  connection  with  his  friend  Aris- 
of  the  assassination  of  the  tyrant    ^ogiton   and  some  Others,  planned 

Hipparchus  °  . 

to  assassinate  both  the  tyrants.  Hip- 
parchus was  slain,  but  the  plans  of  the  conspirators  miscarried  as 
to  Hippias.  Harmodius  was  struck  down  by  the  guards  of  the 
tyrants,  and  Aristogiton,  after  having  been  tortured  in  vain  in 
order  to  force  him  to  reveal  the  names  of  the  other  conspirators, 
was  put  to  death. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  how  tyrannicide  appeared  to  the 
Greek  mind  as  an  eminently  praiseworthy  act  (sec.  173).  This 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  grateful  and  venerated  remembrance 
in  which    Harmodius   and   Aristogiton   were    ever  held    by   the 


Fig.  82.  —  The  Athenian 
Tyrannicides,  Harmodius 
AND  Aristogiton 


THE    CONSTITUTION    OF   CLISTHENES  175 

Athenians.  Statu£|/vv ere  raised  in  their  honor  (Fig.  82),  and  the 
story  of  their  deed  was  rehearsed  to  the  youth  as  an  incentive  to 
patriotism  and  self-devotion. 

The  plot  had  a  most  unhappy  effect  upon  the  disposition  of 
Hippias.  It  caused  him  to  become  suspicious  and  severe.  His 
rule  now  became  a  tyranny  indeed.  With  the  help  of  the  Spar- 
tans he  was  finally  driven  out  of  the  city. 

188.  The  Constitution  of  Clisthenes  (508  b.c).  —  Straightway 
upon  the  expulsion  of  the  tyrant  Hippias  there  arose  a  great 
strife  between  the  commons  led  by  CHslhenes,  who  wished  to 
conduct  the  government  on  the  lines  drawn  by  Solon,  and  the 
nobles,  who  aimed  at  the  restoration  of  the  old  aristocratic  rule. 

The  issue  was  the  triumph  of  the  popular  party.     The  consti- 
^tution  was  now  put  into  the  hands  of  Clisthenes  in  order  that  he 
might  mold  it  into  a  form  still  more  democratic  than  that  given         . 
it  by  Solon.     Thus  in  the  year  508  B.C.  Clisthenes  became  the/    ^ 
third  great  legislatOL_QLthe  Athenians.  j 

The  most  important  of  CHsthenes'  measures  was  that  by  which 
he  conferred  Athenian  citizenship  upon  all  the  free  inhabitafits  of 
Attica}^  This  was  what  we  should  call  an  extension  of  the  fran- 
chise. The  measure  made  such  a  radical  change  in  the  constitution 
in  the  interest  of  the  masses  that  Clisthenes  rather  than  Solon  is  /', 
regarded  by  many  as  the  real  founder  of  the  Athenian  democracy. 

189.  Ostracism.  — Among  the  other  innovations  or  institutions 
of  Clisthenes  was  the  celebrated  one  known  as  ostracism.     By 

10  The  population  of  Attica  comprised  originally  four  tribes  {d)v\a.i).  Each  of  the 
tribes  contained  three  phra tries  or  brotherhoods  {(ppaTpiae) ;  the  phratries  were  com- 
posed of  gentes  (yivr))  or  clans ;  and  the  clans  were  made  up  of  families.  In  place 
of  these  four  tribes  (they  were  not  dissolved  but  merely  deprived  of  all  political  sig- 
nificance) Clisthenes  formed  ten  new  tribes  in  which  he  enrolled  all  the  freemen  of 
Attica,  including,  it  would  seem,  resident  aliens  and  emancipated  slaves.  These 
new  tribes,  which  were  practically  geographical  divisions  of  Attica,  were  each  made 
up  of  a  number  of  local  subdivisions  called  demcs,  or  townships.  The  dejnes  con- 
stituting any  given  tribe  were  scattered  about  Attica.  The  object  of  this  was  to 
break  up  the  old  factions,  and  also  to  give  each  tribe  some  territory  in  or  near  Athens, 
so  that  at  least  some  of  its  members  should  be  within  easy  reach  of  the  meeting  place 
of  the  Ecclesia.  A  few  years  after  the  creation  of  these  new  tribes  an  important 
change  was  made  in  the  organization  of  the  army.  In  place  of  the  four  strategi  or  \ 
generals  who  commanded  the  forces  of  the  four  old  tribes,  ten  generals  were  now  \ 
elected,  one  by  each  of  the  ten  new  tribes. 


176  HISTORY   OF  ATHENS 

means  of  this  process  any  person  who  had  excited  the  suspicions 
or  displeasure  of  the  people  could,  without  trial,  be  banished  from 
Athens  for  a  period  of  ten  years.  Six  thousand  votes  ^^  cast  against 
any  person  in  a  meeting  of  the  popular  assembly  was  a  decree  of 
banishment.  The  name  of  the  person  whose  banishment  was 
sought  was  written  on  a  sjiell  or  a  piece  of  pottery,  in  Greek  ostra- 
kon  (oarpaKov),  whence  the  term  ostracism. 

The  design  of  this  institution  was  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of 
such  a  usurpation  as  that  of  the  Pisistratidse.  It  was  first  used 
to  get  rid  of  some  of  the  old  friends  of  the  ex-tyrant  Hippias,  who, 
the  Athenians  had  reason  to  beheve,  were  plotting  for  his  return. 
\  Later  the  vote  came  to  be  employed,  as  a  rule,  simply  to  set- 
tle disputes  between  rival  leaders  of  pohtical  parties,  and  when 
thus  used  was  designed  to  put  an  end  to  dangerous  contentions 
between  powerful  factions  in  the  state.  Thus  the  vote  merely 
expressed  political  preference,  the  ostracized  person  being  simply 
the  defeated. candidate  for  popular  favor.  No  stigma  or  disgrace 
attach^, t^  him. 

"^The  power  that  the  device  of  ostracism  lodged  in  the  hands  of 
the  people  was  not  always  wisely  used,  and  some  of  the  ablest  and 
most  patriotic  statesmen  of  Athens  were  sent  into  exile  through 
the  influence  of  some  demagogue  who  for  the  moment  had  caught 
the  popular  ear.^^ 

190.  Sparta  opposes  the  Athenian  Democracy.  —  The  aristocratic 
party  at  Athens  was  naturally  bitterly  opposed  to  all  these  demo- 
cratic innovations.  The  Spartans  also  viewed  with  disquiet  and 
jealousy  this  rapid  growth  of  the  Athenian  democracy,  and,  invit- 
ing Hippias  over  from  Asia,  tried  to  overthrow  the  new  govern- 
ment and  restore  him  to  power.     But  they  did  not  succeed  in 


11  Or  possibly  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  in  an  assembly  of  not  less  than  six 
thousand  citizens.     The  authorities  are  not  clear. 

12  The  institution  was  short-lived.  It  was  resorted  to  for  the  last  time  during  the 
Peloponnesian  War  (418  B.C.).  The  people  then,  in  a  freak,  ostracized  a  man, 
Hyperbolus  by  name,  whom  all  admitted  to  be  the  meanest  man  in  Athens.  This, 
it  is  said,  was  regarded  as  such  a  degradation  of  the  institution,  as  well  as  such  an 
honor  to  the  mean  man,  that  never  thereafter  did  the  Athenians  degrade  a  good 
man  or  honor  a  bad  one  by  a  resort  to  the  measure. 


REFERENCES  1/7 

their  purpose,  because  their  aUies  refused  to  aid  them  in  such 
an  undertaking,  and  Hippias  went  away  to  Persia  to  seek  aid  of 
King  Darius.     We  shall  hear  of  him  again. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Solon.  Aristotle, 
Athenian  Constiiution,  13-19. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  i,  pp.  316-431-  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  422-529;  vol.  iii,  pp.  324-398.  Abbott,  vol.  i, 
chaps,  ix,  xiii,  and  xv.  The  accounts  of  the  Athenian  constitution  in  Curtius, 
Grote,  and  Abbott,  which  were  written  before  the  discovery  of  the  Aristo- 
telian treatise,  must  be  read  with  caution  and  under  the  light  of  the  new  evi- 
dence. Holm,  vol.  i,  chaps,  xxvi-xxviii.  Allcroft  and  Masom,  Early^ 
Grecian  History,  chaps,  xii-xv.  Cox,  Lives  of  Greek  Statesmen,  "  Solon," 
"  Peisistratus,"  and  "  Kleisthenes."  Greenidge,  Handbook  of  Greek  Con- 
stitutional History,  chap,  vi,  sees.  1-3.  Gilbert,  The  Constitutional  Antiq- 
uities of  Sparta  and  Athens  (last  half).  Oman,  History  of  Greece,  chaps, 
xi  and  xii.  Bury,  History  of  Greece,  chap,  iv,  sec.  iv ;  and  chap,  v,  sec.  ii. 
Youthful  readers  will  enjoy  Harrison,  Story  of  Greece,  chaps,  xvi-xviii. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  — i.  Legends  of  Solon.  2.  The  Alcmaeon- 
idse  and  the  Delphian  temple  and  oracle.  3.  The  constitution  of  Clisthenes. 
4.  The  story  of  Athena  and  Poseidon.  5.  Was  ostracism  defensible  ? 
See  Grote.     6.  The  rebelHon  of  Cylon. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

HELLAS   OVERSHADOWED   BY  THE   RISE  OF  PERSIA: 
PRELUDE   TO   THE  PERSIAN   WARS 

191.  The  Real  Cause  of  the  Persian  Wars.  —  In  a  foregoing 
chapter  on  Greek  colonization  we  showed  how  the  expansive 
energies  of  the  Greek  race,  chiefly  during  the  eighth  and  seventh 
centuries  B.C.,  covered  the  islands  and  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
world  with  a  free,  liberty4oying,  ^_£rogLessive,  and  ever-growing 
population  of  Hellenic  speech  and  culture. 

The  first  half  of  the  sixth  century  had  barely  passed  before  this 
promising  expansion  movement  was  first  checked  and  then  seri- 
ously cramped  by  the  rise  of  a  great  despotic  Asiatic  power,  the 
^  Persian-Empire,  which,  pushing  outward  from  its  central  seat  on 
the  table-lands  of  Iran  to  the  ^gean  Sea,  before  the  close  of 
the  century  had  subjugated  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor  and 
was  threatening  to  overwhelm  in  like  manner  those  of  European 
Greece.  Here  m^st  besought  the  real  cause  of  the  memorable 
wars  between  Hellas  and  Persia. 

To  understand,  then,  the  character  and  import  of  the  contest 
which  we  are  approaching,  we  must  now  turn  from  our  study  of 
the  rising  cities  of  Greece  in  order  to  cast  a  glance  at  this  colossal 
empire  whose  giant  shadow  was  thus  darkening  the  bright  Hellenic 
world,  and  whose  steady  encroachments  upon  the  Greek  cities 
threatened  to  leave  the  Greeks  no  standing  room  on  the  earth. 

As  we  have  already  watched  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Oriental 
world  the  rise  of  the  Persian  Empire  (Chapter  IX),  we  shall  here 
notice  only  those  conquests  of  the  Persian  kings  which  concerned 
the  Hellenic  race,  in  whose  fortunes  we  cannot  now  but  feel  an 
absorbing  interest. 

192.  Import  for  Greece  of  the  Fall  of  the  Lydian  Kingdom  (about 
546  B.C.). — It  will  be  recalled  that  the  Persian  Empire  was  founded 

178 


CYRUS  AND   THE  ASIATIC   GREEK  CITIES       179 

by  Cyrus  the  Great  (sec.  96).  Of  his  various  conquests  it  con- 
cerns us  here  to  note  only  that  of  the  Lydian  kingdom  and  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor. 

The  fall  of  the  Lydian  kingdom  has  a  special  significance  for 
Grecian  history  from  the  fact  that  power  in  Asia^nor  now  passed 
from  the  hands  of  the  tolerant,  Greek-loving  Lydian  kings  into  the 
hands  of  intolerant,  Greek-hating  Persians.  The  rulers  of  Lydia 
appreciated  Greek  civilization,  and  were  friends  of  the  Greek  gods 
[And  patrons  of  the  Greek  shrines.  The  Persian  kings,  however, 
speaking  generally,^  were  ignorant  and  disdain fuLof  Greek  cul- 
ture, and  as  monotheists  were  naturally^hostil^to_Greek_\vorship.  ^ 
The  Greeks  had  now  good  reason,  as  Curtius  says,  to  tremble  for 
city^ temple ,_and  altar.  /f  ^t  ^ 

193.  ConquestbyCynisof  the  Asiatic  Greek  Cities  (5 46-5 44  B.C.). 
—  The  Greek  cities  of  the  Asian  coast  which  had  formed  part  of 
the  Lydian  kingdom  soon  reahzed  of  what  serious  concern  to  them 
was  the  revolution  that  had  transferred  authority  in  Asia  Minor 
from  Lydian  to  Persian  hands.  Cyrus  had  asked  them  to  join  him 
in  his  war  against  Croesus,  but  all  except  Miletus,  satisfied  with  the 
easy  conditions  which  that  king  had  imposed  upon  them,  refused 
to  listen  to  any  proposal  of  the  kind. 

Upon  the  downfall  of  Croesus,  these  cities  hastened  to  offer 
submission  to  the  conqueror,  asking  that  he  would  allow  them  to 
retain  all  the  privileges  which  they  had  enjoyed  under  the  Lydian 
monarchy.  Cyrus  refused  their  petition.  Thereupon  they  closed 
their  gates  against  him,  and  resolved  to  fight  for  their  liberties. 
In  a  short  time,  however,  all  were  reduced  to  submission. 

Many  of  the  lonians,  rather  than  live  in  Ionia  as  slaves,  aban- 
doned their  old  homes  and  sought  new  ones  among  the  colonies 
of  Western  Hellas  and  on  the  Thracian  shore.  All  the  remaining 
inhabitants  of  the  Asian  Greek  cities,  together  with  those  of  the 
large  islands  of  Chios  and  Lesbos,  became  subjects  of  the  Persian 
king.  The  cities  retained  the  management  of  their  own  affairs,  under 
such  governments  as  they  chanced  to  have,  but  were  forced  to  pay 
tribute,  and  to  furnish  contingents  to  the  army  of  their  master. 
1  Cyrus  was  liberal-minded  and  tolerant. 


l8o  THE   RISE   OF    PERSIA 

Thus  at  one  blow  was  the  whole  of  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
^gean,  the  cradle  and  home  of  the  earliest  development  in 
Greek  poetry,  philosophy,  and  art,  lost  to  the  Hellenic  world. 

194.  Conquest  of  Phoenicia,  Egypt,  Cyprus,  and  Cyrene  by  Cam- 
byses  (529-522  b.c).  — Under  Cyrus'  son,  Cambyses,  the  Persian 
power  pressed  still  more  heavily  upon  the  Greek  world. 

Cambyses  first  brought  the  cities  of  Phoenicia  under  his  author- 
ity, and  thus  obtained  control  of  their  large  naval  resources. 
Straightway  their  galleys  were  ordered  to  be  put  in  readiness  to 
aid  in  the  proposed  subjection  of  Egypt.  To  the  Phoenician  fleet 
when  collected  was  added  a  large  contingent  of  ships  furnished 
by  the  Asian  Greeks,  who  were  thus  compelled  to  assist  their 
master  in  reducing  to  slavery  the  rest  of  the  world.  Cyprus,  a 
dependency  of  Egypt,  was  now  conquered,  and  the  naval  strength 
of  that  island  added  to  the  already  formidable  armament  of  the 
Persian  king. 

Supported  by  his  fleet,  Cambyses  marched  his  army  from  Syria 
into  Egypt  and,  as  already  stated  (sec.  97),  speedily  brought  that 
country  under  his  control.  The  conquest  of  Egypt  drew  after  it 
the  subjection  to  the  Persian  power  of  the  Greek  colonies  of  Cyrene 
and  Barca  on  the  African  coast. 

This  extension  of  the  authority  of  the  Persian  king  over  Phoe- 
nicia, Cyprus,  Egypt,  and  the  Greek  colonies  of  the  African  shore, 
was  another  severe  blow  to  Greek  interests  and  Greek  independ- 
ence. The  naval  armaments  of  all  these  maritime  countries  were 
now  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  Persian  despot,  and  were  ready 
to  be  turned  against  those  of  the  Greeks  who  still  were  free. 

195.  Destruction  of  the  Sea  Power  of  Polycrates  in  the  ^gean 
(522  B.C.).  —  But  it  was  the  extension  of  the  Persian  authority  in 
the  West  that  most  intimately  concerned  the  Greek  world.  The 
year  preceding  the  accession  of  Darius  I  to  the  Persian  throne  had 
witnessed  the  fall  of  Polycrates  (sec.  175)  and  the  virtual  destruc- 
tion of  his  maritime  empire  in  the  ^gean. 

The  dominion  of  Polycrates  was  scarcely  more,  it  is  true,  than 
a  piratical  sea  power ;  yet  it  was  a  Greek  state,  and  might  have 
proved,  in  the  critical  time  fast  approaching,  an  effectual  barrier 


SCYTHIAN   EXPEDITION   OF   DARIUS  I  i8l 

in  the  ^gean  against  the  barbarian  wave  of  conquest  which  now 
threatened  to  overwhelm  even  the  cities  of  European  Greece. 

196.  The  Scythian  Expedition  of  Darius  I ;  Conquests  in  Europe 
(513?  B.C.).  —  The  growing  anxiety  of  the  Greeks  in  the  home 
land  was  intensified  by  the  passage  of  the  Bosporus,  about  the  year 
513  B.C.,  by  an  immense  Persian  army  led  by  Darius  in  person, 
and  aimed  at  the  Scythians,  old  foes  of  the  Asian  peoples,  inhabit- 
ing the  bleak  steppes  which  comprise  South  Russia  of  to-day. 

The  outcome  of  this  expedition  was  the  addition  of  both  Thrace 
and  Macedonia,  together  with  important  islands  in  the  Northern 
^gean,  to  the  Persian  Empire,  and  in  the  advance  of  its  western 
frontier  to  the  passes  of  the  mountains  which  guard  Greece  on 
the  north. 

The  greater  part  of  the  shores  of  the  ^gean  was  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Great  King.^  That  sea  which  had  so  long  been 
the  special  arena  of  Greek  activity  and  Greek  achievement  had 
become  practically  a  Persian  lake.  Moreover,  through  the  loss 
of  the  Hellespontine  regions  the  Greeks  were  cut  off  from  the 
Euxine,  which  had  come  to  be  such  an  important  part  of  the 
Hellenic  world. 

197.  The  Rise  of  the  Persian  Power  in  the  East  synchronizes 
with  the  Rise  of  the  Power  of  Carthage  in  the  West.  —  At  the 
same  time  that  the  Greeks  of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  were 
thus  falling  under  the  yoke  of  the  Persians,  and  the  liberty  of  the 
cities  in  the  home  land  was  being  threatened  with  extinction,  the 
Greeks  in  Sicily  were  being  hard  pressed  by  another  barbarian 
people,  the  Phoenicians.  The  power  of  Carthage  was  rising,  and 
the  Greek  cities  of  Sicily  were  just  now  engaging  in  a  doubtful 
contest  with  her  for  the  possession  of  the  island.  Thus  all  round 
the  horizon  threatening  clouds  were  darkening  the  once  bright 
prospects  of  the  Hellenic  world. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  critical  moment  in  the  history  of  the  Greek  race. 
As  Ranke  says,  "  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  energetic  Greek 
world  was  in  danger  of  being  crushed  in  the  course  of  its  vigorous 
development." 

2  Consult  map  after  p.  92. 


l82  THE   RISE   OF   PERSIA 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Herodotus,  i.  152,  153  and  iv.  137; 
will  afford  a  glimpse  into  the  thought  of  the  times. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  ii,  pp.  112-193.  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vol.  iii,  pp.  399-491.  Abbott,  vol.  i,  pp.  486-506.  Holm, 
vol.  i,  chap,  xxiii.  Oman,  History  of  Greece,  pp.  1 18-140.  Timayenis, 
vol.  i,  pt.  iii,  chap,  i.  Cox,  The  Greeks  and  Persians,  chap.  iii.  Bury, 
History  of  Greece,  pp.  223-241.  Harrison,  Story  of  Greece,  chaps, 
xxiii-xxv. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Croesus  and  Delphi.  2.  Character  and 
culture  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks. 


Fig.  S^.  —  Greek  Warriors  preparing  for  Battle 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  PERSIAN  WARS 

(500-479  B.C.) 

198.  The  Beginning  of  the  Ionian  Revolt  (500  B.C.);  the  Burn- 
ing of  Sardis  (499  B.C.).  —  The  Greek  cities  reduced  to  servitude 
by  Persia  could  neither  long  nor  quietly  endure  the  loss  of  their 
independence.  In  the  year  500  B.C.  Ionia  became  the  center  of 
a  widespread  rebeUion  against  the  Great  King. 

The  Athenians  sent  twenty  ships  to  the  aid  of  their  Ionian  kins- 
men.^ Sardis  was  taken  and  laid  in  ashes  (499  B.C.).  Defeated 
in  battle,  the  Athenians,  thoroughly  disheartened,  forsook  their 
Ionian  confederates  and  sailed  back  to  Athens. 

This  unfortunate  expedition  was  destined  to  have  tremendous 
consequences.  The  Athenians  had  not  only  burned  Sardis,  but 
"  had  set  the  whole  world  on  fire."  When  the  news  of  the 
affair  reached  Darius  at  Susa,  he  asked,  Herodotus  tells  us,  who 
the  Athenians  were,  and  being  informed,  called  for  his  bow,  and 
placing  an  arrow  on  the  string,  shot  upward  into  the  sky,  saying 
as  he  let  fly  the  shaft,  "  Grant,  O  Zeus,  that  I  may  have  ven- 
geance on  the  Athenians."  After  this  speech,  he  bade  one  of  his 
servants  every  day  when  his  dinner  was  spread  to  repeat  to  him 
three  times  these  words  :   "  Master,  remember  the  Athenians." 

199.  Spread  of  the  Rebellion;  the  Fall  of  Miletus  (494  B.C.); 
End  of  the  Revolt  (493  b.c).  —  Deserted  by  the  Athenians,  the 

1  The  Eretrians  of  Euboea  joined  the  Athenians  with  five  triremes. 
183 


l84  THE   PERSIAN   WARS 

only  course  left  to  the  lonians  was  to  draw  as  many  cities  as 
possible  into  the  revolt.  They  accordingly  stirred  up  to  rebel- 
lion against  the  Persian  king  all  the  Greek  cities  of  the  Helles- 
pont and  the  Propontis,  together  with  the  Carians,  and  all  the 
Greek  and  barbarian  cities,  save  one,  on  the  island  of  Cyprus. 
The  movement  threatened  the  destruction  of  the  Persian  power 
in  all  those  regions  where  its  yoke  had  been  laid  upon  the  neck 
of  once  free  Hellenes. 

This  was  an  opportune  time  for  setting  fast  limits  to  the 
threatening  advance  of  the  Persian  arms,  and  had  Sparta  and 
Athens  with  the  other  cities  of  Greece  only  lent  such  aid  to  their 
Asiatic  kinsmen  as  considerations  of  duty  and  prudence  dictated, 
the  decisive  battle  between  Greek  and  barbarian  might  have  been 
fought  in  this  Ionian  war,  and  European  Greece  have  been  saved 
from  the  great  invasion.  But  the  inability  of  the  Greek  cities 
to  stand  together  in  a  common  cause  was  never  more  lamentably 
illustrated  than  at  just  this  moment. 

The  mihtary  resources  of  the  Great  King  were  now  collected 
for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  which  thus  at  a  blow  had 
separated  from  his  empire  the  long  reach  of  Asiatic  coast  land 
from  the  Bosporus  to  Lycia.  The  land  and  sea  forces  of  the 
Persians  closed  in  around  Miletus.  After  a  long  siege  the  city 
was  taken.  The  most  of  the  men  were  slain,  while  the  women 
and  children  were  carried  off  in  a  body  and  settled  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Tigris. 

The  cruel  fate  of  Miletus  stirred  deeply  the  feelings  of  the 
Athenians.  They  must  have  felt  that  they  themselves  were,  in 
a  measure  at  least,  responsible  for  the  calamity,  through  their 
desertion  of  the  cause  of  their  kinsmen.  When,  the  year  follow- 
ing the  fall  of  the  city,  there  was  presented  in  the  theater  at 
Athens  a  drama  entitled  the  Capture  of  Miletus,  the  people  were 
moved  to  tears,  and  afterwards  fined  the  author  "  for  recalling  to 
them  their  own  misfortune."  They  also  made  a  law  forbidding 
the  presentation  of  the  piece  again. 

The  remaining  cities  of  Ionia  shared  the  fate  of  Miletus. 
They  were  sacked  and  destroyed,  and  the  fairest  of   the  boys 


FIRST   EXPEDITION    OF   DARIUS  185 

and  maidens  were  carried  off  for  the  service  of  the  Great  King. 
Also  all  the  Greek  cities  on  the  European  side  of  the  Hellespont 
were  taken  and  burned. 

The  first  serious  attempt  of  the  enslaved  Greeks  to  recover 
their  lost  freedom  was  thus  suppressed.  The  eastern  half  of  the 
Greek  world,  filled  with  the  ruins  of  once  flourishing  cities,  and 
bearing  everywhere  the  cruel  marks  of  barbarian  warfare,  lay  again 
in  vassalage  to  the  Great  King.  "  The  mild  Ionian  heavens  did 
their  part  to  heal  the  wounds :  the  waste  places  were  again  in 
time  built  upon,  and  cities,  such  as  Ephesus,  bloomed  again 
in  great  prosperity ;  but  as  to  a  history  of  Ionia,  that  was  for  all 
time  past."  ^ 

200.  The  First  Expedition  of  Darius  against  Greece  (492  B.C.). 
—  With  the  Ionian  revolt  crushed  and  punished,  Darius  deter- 
mined to  chastise  the  European  Greeks,  and  particularly  the 
Athenians,  for  their  insolence  in  giving  aid  to  his  rebellious 
subjects. 

A  large  land  and  naval  armament  was  fitted  out  and  placed 
under  the  command  of  Mardonius,  the  son-in-law  of  Darius; 
The  land  forces  suffered  severe  losses  at  the  hands  of  the  bar- 
barians of  Thrace,  and  the  fleet  was  wrecked  by  a  violent  storm 
off  Mount  Athos,  three  hundred  ships  being  lost  (492  B.C.). 

201.  Darius'  Second  Expedition  (490  B.C.). — Undismayed  by 
this  disaster,  Darius  issued  orders  for  the  raising  and  equipping 
of  another  and  stronger  armament.  Meanwhile  he  sent  heralds 
to  the  various  Grecian  states  to  demand  earth  and  water,  which 
elements  among  the  Persians  were  symbols  of  submission.  The 
weaker  states  gave  the  tokens  required ;  but  the  Athenians  and 
Spartans  threw  the  envoys  of  the  king  into  pits  and  wells,  and 
bade  them  help  themselves  to  what  earth  and  water  they  wanted. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  year  490  B.C.,  another  Persian  army 
of  120,000  men  had  been  mustered  for  the  second  attempt  upon 
Greece.  This  armament  was  intrusted  to  the  command  of  the 
experienced  generals  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  but  was  under  the 
guidance  of  the  traitor  Hippias  (sec.  190).    A  fleet  of  six  hundred 

2  Curtius,  Griech.  Gesc/i.,  vol.  i,  p.  629  (6th  ed.). 


l86  THE   PERSIAN   WARS 

ships  bore  the  army  from  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor  over  the  ^gean 
towards  the  Grecian  shores. 

After  receiving  the  submission  of  the  most  important  of  the 
Cyclades,  and  capturing  and  sacking  the  city  of  Eretria  upon  the 
island  of  Eubcea,  the  Persians  landed  at  Marathon,  barely  one 
day's  journey  from  Athens.  Here  is  a  sheltered  bay,  which  is 
edged  by  a  crescent-shaped  plain,  backed  by  the  rugged  ranges 
of  Parnes  and  Pentelicus.  Upon  this  level  ground  the  Persian 
generals  drew  up  their  army,  flushed  and  confident  with  their 
recent  successes. 

202.  The  Battle  of  Marathon  (490  b.c).  —  The  Athenians  made 
surpassing  efforts  to  avert  from  their  city  the  impending  destruc- 
tion. Instead  of  awaiting  behind  their  walls  the  coming  of  the 
Persians,  they  decided  to  offer  them  battle  in  the  open  field  at 
Marathon.     Accordingly  they  marched  out  10,000  strong. 

While  the  Athenians  were  getting  ready  for  the  fight,  a  fleet 
runner,  Phidippides  by  name,  was  hurrying  with  a  message  to 
Sparta  for  aid.  The  practical  value  of  the  athletic  training  of 
the  Greeks  was  now  shown.  In  just  thirty-six  hours  Phidippides 
was  in  Sparta,  which  is  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  or  forty  miles 
from  Athens.  He  informed  the  Spartans  of  the  capture  of  Ere- 
tria by  the  barbarians,  and  besought  their  immediate  aid,  that 
Athens,  the  most  ancient  of  Grecian  states,  might  not  suffer  a 
similar  fate.  But  it  so  happened  that  it  lacked  a  few  days  of 
the  full  of  the  moon,  during  which  interval  the  Spartans,  owing 
to  an  old  superstition,  dared  not  set  out  upon  a  mihtary  expedi- 
tion. Nevertheless,  they  promised  aid,  but  marched  from  Sparta 
only  in  time  to  reach  Athens  after  all  was  over. 

The  Plat^ans,  however,  firm  and  grateful  friends  of  the  Athe- 
nians on  account  of  the  protection  they  had  accorded  them 
against  the  Thebans,  no  sooner  had  received  their  appeal  for 
help  than  they  responded  to  a  man,  and  joined  them  at  Marathon 
with  a  thousand  heavy-armed  soldiers. 

The  Athenians  and  their  faithful  allies  took  up  their  position 
just  where  the  hills  of  Pentelicus  sink  into  the  plain  of  Marathon. 
The  Persian  host,  numbering  100,000  infantry  and  10,000  cavalry, 


THE   BATTLE   OF    MARATHON 


187 


occupied  the  low  ground  in  their  front,  while  their  war  ships  and 
transports  covered  the  beach  behind. 

The  Athenians  resolved  to  attack  the  enemy  and  not  wait  to 
be  attacked.  Sacrifices  having  been  offered  and  the  omens  being 
auspicious,  the  charge  was  sounded  and  the  Greeks  advanced  on 
a  run  towards  the  Persian  lines.  The  issue  of  the  battle  was  for 
a  time  doubtful.     Then  the  tide  turned  in  favor  of  the  Athenians. 


SCALE  OF  MILES 

6-     k      i 


Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Marathon 


The  Persians  were  pushed  back  towards  the  shore  and  driven  to 
their  ships  with  great  slaughter. 

Miltiades,  the  Athenian  general  who  was  in  supreme  command, 
at  once  dispatched  a  courier  to  Athens  with  intelligence  of  his 
victory.  The  messenger  reached  the  city  in  a  few  hours,  but  so 
breathless  that,  as  the  people  thronged  eagerly  around  him  to 
hear  the  news  he  bore,  he  could  merely  gasp,  "Victory  is  ours," 
and  fell  dead. 

But  the  danger  was  not  yet  over.  The  Persians,  instead  of 
returning  to  the  coast  of  Asia,  bore  down  upon  Athens,  thinking 
to  take  the  city  before  the  Athenian  army  could  return  from 
Marathon.  Miltiades,  however,  informed  by  watchers  on  the  hills 
of  the  movements  of  the  enemy,  straightway  set  out  with  his  little 


l88  THE   PERSIAN   WARS 

army  for  the  capital,  which  he  reached  just  at  evening,  probably 
on  the  day  following  the  fight  at  Marathon.  The  next  morn- 
ing when  the  Persian  generals  would  have  made  an  attack  upon 
Athens,  they  found  themselves  confronted  by  the  same  men  who 
had  beaten  them  back  from  the  Marathon  shore.  Shrinking  from 
another  encounter  with  these  citizen  soldiers,  the  Persians  spread 
their  sails  and  bore  away  for  the  Ionian  shore. 

The  day  following  the  battle  the  Spartans,  two  thousand  in 
number,  arrived  at  Athens.  Before  returning  home  they  visited 
the  battlefield  and  looked  upon  the  yet  unburied  bodies  of  the 
Persians.^  They  bestowed  generous  praise  upon  the  Athenians 
for  the  brave  fight  they  had  made,  and,  true  soldiers  as  they  were, 
doubtless  regretted  that  they  had  not  had  part  in  it. 

Thus  the  cloud  that  had  lowered  so  threateningly  over  Hellas 
was  for  a  time  dissipated.  The  most  imposing  honors  were 
accorded  to  the  heroes  who  had  achieved  the  glorious  victory, 
and  their  names  and  deeds  were  transmitted  to  posterity  in  song 
and  marble.  The  bodies  of  the  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
Athenians  who  had  fallen  were  buried  on  the  field,  and  an  enor- 
mous mound  of  earth  was  raised  over  them. 

203.  Results  of  the  Battle  of  Marathon.  — The  battle  of  Mara- 
thon is  justly  reckoned  as  one  of  the  "decisive  battles  of  the 
world."  It  marks  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  humanity. 
The  battle  decided  that  no  longer  the  despotism  of  the  East, 
with  its  repression  of  all  individual  action,  but  the  freedom  of 
the  West,  with  all  its  incentives  to  personal  effort,  should  mark  the 
future  centuries  of  history.  The  tradition  of  the  fight  forms  the 
prelude  of  the  story  of  human  freedom  and  progress. 

Again,  by  the  victory  Hellenic  civilization  was  saved  to  mature 
its  fruit,  not  for  Hellas  alone  but  for  the  world.  We  cannot  con- 
ceive what  European  civiHzation  would  be  like  without  those  rich 
and  vitalizing  elements  contributed  to  it  by  the  Greek,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  Athenian,  genius.  But  the  germs  of  all  these  might 
have  been  smothered  and  destroyed  had  the  barbarians  won  the 
day  at  Marathon.  Ancient  Greece,  as  a  satrapy  of  the  Persian 
3  Herodotus  makes  the  loss  of  the  Persians  6400. 


MILTIADES    FALLS    INTO   DISGRACE  189 

Empire,  would  certainly  have  become  what  modern  Greece 
became  as  a  province  of  the  empire  of  the  Ottoman  Turks. 

Moreover,  the  overwhelming  defeat  which  the  handful  of  Athe- 
nian freemen  had  inflicted  upon  the  immense  hordes  of  the  Great 
King  broke  the  spell  of  the  Persian  name  and  destroyed  forever 
the  prestige  of  the  Persian  arms.  The  victory  gave  the  Hellenic 
peoples  that  position  of  authority  and  preeminence  that  had  been 
so  long  held  by  the  successive  races  of  the  East.  It  marked  the 
beginning  of  European  history. 

The  great  achievement  further  especially  revealed  the  Athe- 
nians to  themselves.  The  consciousness  of  resources  and  power 
became  the  inspiration  of  their  after  deeds.  They  did  great 
things  thereafter  because  they  believed  themselves  able  to  do 
them.  From  the  battle  of  Marathon  dates  the  beginning  of  the 
great  days  of  imperial  Athens. 

204.  Miltiades  falls  into  Disgrace.  —  The  distinguished  services 
Miltiades  had  rendered  his  country  made  him  the  hero  of  the 
hour  at  Athens.  Taking  advantage  of  his  popularity,  he  per- 
suaded the  Athenians  to  put  in  his  hands  a  fleet  for  an  enterprise 
respecting  the  nature  of  which  no  one  save  himself  was  to  know 
anything  whatever.  Of  course  it  was  generally  supposed  that  he 
meditated  an  attack  upon  the  Persians  or  their  alHes,  and  with  full 
faith  in  the  judgment  as  well  as  in  the  integrity  of  their  favorite, 
the  Athenians  gave  him  the  command  he  asked. 

But  Miltiades  abused  the  confidence  placed  in  him.  He  led 
the  expedition  against  the  island  of  Paros  simply  to  avenge  some 
private  wrong.  The  undertaking  w^as  unsuccessful,  and  Miltiades, 
severely  wounded,  returned  to  Athens,  where  he  was  brought  to 
trial  for  his  conduct.  His  eminent  services  at  Marathon  pleaded 
eloquently  for  him,  and  he  escaped  being  sentenced  to  death, 
but  was  subjected  to  a  heavy  fine.  This  he  was  unable  to  pay, 
and,  being  cast  into  prison,  died  soon  after  from  the  effects  of  his 
wound.  His  son  Cimon  afterwards  paid  the  fine.  But  the  stain  of 
Miltiades'  act  could  not  be  effaced  even  by  filial  piety,  and  a  dark 
blot  remained  upon  a  reputation  otherwise  the  most  resplendent 
in  Grecian  history. 


I  go 


THE    PERSIAN    WARS 


205.  Themistocles  and  his  Naval  Policy. — At  this  time  there 
came  prominently  forward  at  Athens  a  man  whose  genius,  aided 
by  favoring  circumstances,  was  to  create  the  naval  greatness  of  the 
Athenian  state.  This  was  Themistocles,  a  sagacious,  farsighted, 
versatile  statesman,  who,  in  his  own  words,  though  "he  knew 
nothing  of  music  and  song,  did  know  how  of  a  small  city  to  make 
a  great  one."  He  was  an  ambitious  man,  whom  "  the  trophies  of 
Miltiades  robbed  of  sleep." 

Athens  was  at  this  time  engaged  in  a  war  with  the  island  of 
^gina.  Themistocles  saw  clearly  that  this. war  could  be  brought 
to  a  successful  issue  only  through  the  adoption  by  Athens  of  a 
maritime  pohcy  that  should  transform  her  land  forces  into  a  naval 
power  overwhelmingly  superior  to  that  of  her  rival. 

But  it  was  not  alone  this  enemy  close  at  hand  that  Themistocles 
had  in  view.  While  many  among  the  Athenians  were  incHned  to 
believe  that  the  battle  of  Marathon  had  freed  Athens  forever  from 
the  danger  of  another  Persian  attack,  Themistocles  was  clear- 
sighted enough  to  perceive  that  that  battle  was  only  the  begin- 
ning of  a  tremendous  struggle  between  Hellas  and  Persia,  and  the 
signal  for  still  another  and  more  formidable  invasion  of  Greece 
by  the  barbarians.  Hence  he  labored  incessantly  to  persuade 
the  Athenians  to  strengthen  their  navy  as  the  only  rehable  defense 
of  Hellas  against  subjection  to  the  Persian  power. 

206.  Aristides  opposes  the  Policy  of  Themistocles  and  is  ostra- 
cized (483  B.C.). — Themistocles  was  opposed  in  this  policy  by 
Aristides,  called  the  Just,  a  man  of  the  most  scrupulous  integrity, 
who  feared  that  Athens  would  make  a  serious  mistake  if  she  con- 
verted her  land  force  into  a  naval  armament.  This  seemed  to 
him  a  wide  departure  from  the  traditions  of  the  fathers.  The 
contention  grew  so  sharp  between  the  two  that  ostracism  was 
called  into  use  to  decide  the  matter.  Six  thousand  votes  were  cast 
against  Aristides,  and  he  was  sent  into  exile. 

It  is  related  that  while  the  vote  that  ostracized  him  was  being 
taken  in  the  popular  assembly,  an  iUiterate  peasant,  who  was  a 
stranger  to  Aristides,  asked  him  to  write  the  name  of  Aristides 
uDon  his  tablet.     As  he  placed  the  name  desired  upon  the  shell, 


XERXES'  PREPARATIONS  TO  INVADE  GREECE     191 

the  statesman  asked  the  man  what  wrong  Aristides  had  ever 
done  him.  "  None,"  responded  the  voter ;  "  I  do  not  even  know 
him;  but  I  am  tired  of  hearing  him  called  the  Just." 

After  the  banishment  of  Aristides,  Themistocles  was  free  to 
carry  out  his  naval  poHcy  without  any  serious  opposition,  and 
soon  Athens  had  the  largest  fleet  of  any  Greek  city,  with  a  splendid 
harbor  at  Piraeus.* 

207.  Xerxes'  Preparations  to  invade  Greece.  —  No  sooner  had 
the  news  of  the  disaster  at  Marathon  been  carried  to  Darius  than 
he  began  to  make  gigantic  preparations  to  avenge  this  second 
defeat  and  insult.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  plans  for  revenge 
that,  as  we  have  already  learned,  death  cut  short  his  reign,  and 
his  son  Xerxes  came  to  the  throne. 

Urged  on  by  his  nobles  as  well  as  by  exiled  Greeks  at  his 
court,  who  sought  to  gratify  ambition  or  enjoy  revenge  in  the 
humiliation  and  ruin  of  their  native  land,  Xerxes,  though  at  first 
disinclined  to  enter  into  a  contest  with  the  Greeks,  at  length 
ordered  the  preparations  begun  by  his  father  to  be  pushed  for- 
ward with  the  utmost  energy.  For  eight  years  all  Asia  was  astir 
with  the  work  of  preparation.  Levies  were  made  upon  all  the 
provinces  that  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  Great  King, 
from  India  to  Macedonia,  from  the  regions  of  the  Oxus  to  those 
of  the  Upper  Nile.  From  all  the  maritime  states  upon  the 
Mediterranean  were  demanded  vast  contingents  of  war  galleys, 
transport  ships,  and  naval  stores. 

While  these  land  and  sea  forces  were  being  gathered  and 
equipped,  gigantic  works  were  in  progress  on  the  Thracian  coast 
and  on  the  Hellespont  to  insure  the  safety  and  facilitate  the 
march  of  the  coming  hosts. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  expedition  of  Mardonius  was  ruined 
by  the  destruction  of  his  fleet  in  rounding  the  promontory  of 
Mount  Athos    (sec.  200).     That   the   war   ships   and   transports 

4  Circumstances  happily  concurred  in  the  advancement  of  Themistocles'  plans. 
Just  at  this  time  there  was  a  large  sum  of  money  in  the  treasury  of  the  city,  which 
had  been  derived  from  the  public  silver  mines  at  Laurium,  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  Attica.  This  money  was  about  to  be  divided  among  the  citizens ;  Themistocles 
persuaded  them  to  devote  it  to  the  building  of  war  ships. 


192  THE   PERSIAN   WARS 

of  the  present  armament,  upon  the  safety  of  which  the  success  of 
his  undertaking  so  wholly  depended,  should  not  be  exposed  to 
the  dangers  of  a  passage  around  this  projecting  tongue  of  land, 
Xerxes  determined  to  dig  a  canal  across  the  neck  of  the  isthmus. 
This  great  work  consumed  three  years.  Traces  of  the  cutting 
may  be  seen  to-day. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  canal  at  Mount  Athos  was  being 
excavated,  a  still  more  gigantic  work  was  in  progress  upon  the 
Hellespont.  Here  Europe  was  being  bound  to  Asia  by  a  double 
bridge  of  boats,  probably  at  a  point  where  the  strait  is  about 
one  and  a  half  miles  in  width.  This  work  was  in  the  hands  of 
Egyptian  and  Phoenician  artisans. 

By  the  spring  of  the  year  481  b.c.  the  preparations  for  the 
long-talked-of  expedition  were  about  completed,  and  in  the  fall 
of  that  year  we  find  Xerxes  upon  his  way  to  Sardis,  which  had 
been  selected  as  the  rendezvous  of  the  contingents  of  the  great 
army  of  invasion. 

Just  as  Xerxes  was  about  to  march  from  Sardis,  news  was 
brought  to  him  that  the  bridges  across  the  Hellespont  had  been 
broken  by  a  violent  storm.  Herodotus  relates  that  Xerxes  was 
thrown  into  a  great  passion  by  this  intelligence,  and  ordered  the 
architects  of  the  bridges  to  be  put  to  death  and  the  Hellespont 
to  be  scourged  with  three  hundred  lashes.  The  scourgers  carried 
out  obediently  the  orders  of  their  master,  and  as  they  lashed 
the  traitorous  and  rebelHous  waters  cursed  them  ''  in  non-Hellenic 
and  blasphemous  words." 

208.  Disunion  of  the  Greeks:  Congress  at  Corinth  (481  b.c). 
—  Startling  rumors  of  the  gigantic  preparations  that  the  Persian 
king  was  making  to  crush  them  were  constantly  borne  across  the 
JEgesin  to  the  ears  of  the  Greeks  in  Europe.  Finally  came 
intelligence  that  Xerxes  was  about  to  begin  his  march.  Some- 
thing must  now  be  done  to  meet  the  impending  danger.  Mainly 
through  the  exertions  of  Themistocles,  a  council  of  the  Greek 
cities  was  convened  at  Corinth  in  the  fall  of  481  b.c. 

But  on  account  of  feuds,  jealousies,  and  party  spirit,  only  a 
small  number  of  the  states  of  Hellas  could  be  brought  to  act 


DISUNION   OF   THE   GREEKS 


193 


in  concert.  Argos  would  not  join  the  proposed  confederation 
through  hatred  of  Sparta;  Thebes,  through  jealousy  of  Athens. 
The  Cretans,  to  whom  an  embassy  had  been  sent  soliciting  aid, 
refused  all  assistance.  The  Corcyraeans  promised  to  help,  but 
they  were  not  sincere.  Gelo,  the  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  offered  to 
send  over  a  large  armament,  provided  he  were  given  the  chief  com- 
mand of  the  allied  forces.     His  aid  on  such  terms  was  refused. 

Thus,  through  different  causes,  many  of  the  Greek  cities  held 
aloof  from  the  confederation,  so  that  only  about  fifteen  or  six- 
teen states  were  brought  to  unite  their  resources  against  the 
barbarians ;  and  even  the  strength  of  many  of  these  cities  that 
entered  into  the  alliance  was  divided  by  party  spirit.  The 
friends  of  aristocratic  government  were  almost  invariably  friends 
of  Persia,  because  the  Persian  king  looked  with  more  favor  upon 
aristocratic  than  democratic  government  in  his  subject  Greek 
cities.  Thus,  for  the  sake  of  a  party  \dctory,  the  oligarchs  were 
ready  to  betray  their  country  into  the  hands  of  the  barbarians. 

Furthermore,  the  Delphian  oracle  was  wanting  in  courage,  if 
not  actually  disloyal,  and  by  its  timid  responses  disheartened  the 
patriot  party. 

But  under  the  inspiration  of  Themistocles  the  patriots  in  con- 
vention at  Corinth  determined  upon  desperate  resistance  to  the 
barbarians.  It  was  at  first  decided  to  concentrate  a  strong  force 
in  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  and  at  that  point  to  dispute  the  advance 
of  the  enemy ;  but  this  being  found  impracticable,  it  was  resolved 
that  the  first  stand  against  the  invaders  should  be  made  at  the 
Pass  of  Thermopylae. 

The  Spartans  were  given  the  chief  command  of  both  the  land 
and  the  naval  forces.  The  Athenians  might  fairly  have  insisted 
upon  their  right  to  the  command  of  the  allied  fleet,  but  they 
patriotically  waived  their  claim  for  the  sake  of  harmony. 

209.  The  Passage  of  the  Hellespont.  —  With  the  first  indica- 
tions of  the  opening  spring  of  480  B.C.,  just  ten  years  after  the 
defeat  at  Marathon,  the  vast  Persian  army  was  astir  and  concen- 
trating from  all  points  upon  the  Hellespont.  The  passage  of  this 
Strait,  as  pictured  to  us  in  the  inimitable  narration  of  Herodotus, 


194 


THE   PERSIAN   WARS 


is  one  of  the  most  dramatic  of  all  the  spectacles  afforded  by  history. 
Herodotus  affirms  that  for  seven  days  and  seven  nights  the  bridges 
groaned  beneath  the  living  tide  that  Asia  was  pouring  into  Europe. 
Upon  an  extended  plain  called  Doriscus,  on  the  European 
shore,  Xerxes  drew  up  his  vast  army  for  review  and  census.^ 
The  enumeration  completed,  the  immense  army,  accompanied 
along  the  shore  by  the  fleet,  marched  forward  through  Thrace, 
and  so  on  toward  Greece. 


Map  illustrating  Invasion  of  Greece  by  Xerxes 

210.  The  Battle  of  Thermopylae  (480  b.c).  —  Leading  from 
Northern  into  Central  Greece  is  a  narrow  pass,  pressed  on  one 
side  by  the  sea  and  on  the  other  by  rugged  mountain  ridges.  At 
the  foot  of  the  cliffs  break  forth  several  hot  springs,  whence  the 
name  of  the  pass,  Thermopylae,  or  Hot  Gates. 

At  this  point,  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  Corinthian 
congress,  was  offered  the  first  resistance  to  the  progress  of  the 

5  According  to  Herodotus,  the  land  and  naval  forces  of  Xerxes  amounted  to 
2,317,000  men,  besides  about  2,000,000  slaves  and  attendants.  It  is  certain  that  these 
figures  are  a  great  exaggeration,  and  that  the  actual  number  of  the  Persian  army  could 
not  have  exceeded  600,000  men  aside  from  attendants  and  camp  followers. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THERMOPYL^       I95 

Persian  army.  Leonidas,  king  of  Sparta,  with  three  hundred 
Spartan  soldiers  and  about  six  thousand  allies  from  different  states, 
held  the  pass.  As  the  Greeks  were  about  to  celebrate  the  Olym- 
pian games,  which  their  religious  scruples  would  not  allow  them 
to  postpone,  they  left  this  little  handful  of  men  unsupported  to 
hold  in  check  the  great  army  of  Xerxes  until  the  festival  days 
should  be  past. 

The  Spartans  could  be  driven  from  their  advantageous  position 
only  by  an  attack  in  front,  as  the  Grecian  fleet  prevented  Xerxes 
from  landing  a  force  in  their  rear.  Before  assaulting  them,  Xerxes 
summoned  them  to  give  up  their  arms.  The  answer  of  Leonidas 
was,  "Come  and  take  them."  For  two  days  the  Persians  tried  to 
storm  the  pass.  The  Asiatics  were  driven  to  the  attack  by  their 
officers  armed  with  whips.  But  every  attempt  to  force  the  way 
was  repulsed  ;  even  the  Ten  Thousand  Immortals,  the  bodyguard 
of  the  Great  King,  were  hurled  back  from  the  Spartan  front  like 
waves  from  a  cliff. 

But  an  act  of  treachery  on  the  part  of  a  native  Greek,  Ephial- 
tes  by  name,  "  the  Judas  of  Greece,"  rendered  unavailing  all  the 
bravery  of  the  keepers  of  the  pass.  A  byway  leading  over  the 
mountains  to  the  rear  of  the  Spartans  was  revealed  to  Xerxes. 
The  startHng  intelligence  was  brought  to  Leonidas  that  the  Per- 
sians were  descending  the  mountain  path  in  his  rear.  He  saw 
instantly  that  all  was  lost.  The  allies  were  permitted  to  seek 
safety  in  flight  while  opportunity  remained ;  but  for  him  and  his 
Spartan  companions  there  could  be  no  thought  of  retreat.  Death 
in  the  pass,  the  defense  of  which  had  been  intrusted  to  them,  was 
all  that  Spartan  honor  and  Spartan  law  now  left  them.  The  next 
day,  surrounded  by  the  Persian  host,  they  fought  with  desperate 
valor ;  but,  overwhelmed  by  mere  numbers,  they  were  slain  to  the 
last  man.  With  them  also  perished  seven  hundred  Thespians  who 
had  chosen  death  with  their  companions. 

The  fight  at  Thermopylae  echoed  through  all  the  after  centuries 
of  Grecian  history.  The  Greeks  felt  that  all  Hellas  had  gained 
great  glory  on  that  day  when  Leonidas  and  his  companions  fell, 
and  they  gave  them  a  chief  place  among  their  national  heroes. 


196  THE   PERSIAN    WARS 

Memorial  pillars  marked  for  coming  generations  the  sacred  spot, 
while  praising  inscriptions  and  epitaphs  told  in  brief  phrases  the 
story  of  the  battle.  Among  these  was  an  inscription  in  special 
memory  of  the  Spartans  who  had  fallen,  which,  commemorating 
at  once  Spartan  law  and  Spartan  valor,  read,  "  Stranger,  go  tell 
the  Lacedaemonians  that  we  lie  here  in  obedience  to  their 
commands  !"  ^ 

211.  The  Athenians  abandon  their  City  and  betake  Themselves 
to  their  Ships.  —  Athens  now  lay  open  to  the  invaders.  The 
Peloponnesians,  thinking  of  their  own  safety  simply,  commenced 
throwing  up  defenses  across  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth,  working  day 
and  night  under  the  impulse  of  an  almost  insane  fear.  Athens 
was  thus  left  outside  to  care  for  herself. 

Counsels  were  divided.  The  Delphian  oracle  had  obscurely 
declared,  "  When  everything  else  in  the  land  of  Cecrops  shall  be 
taken,  Zeus  grants  to  Athena  that  the  wooden  walls  alone  shall 
remain  unconquered,  to  defend  you  and  your  children."  The 
oracle  was  believed  to  be,  as  was  declared,  "firm  as  adamant." 

But  there  were  various  opinions  as  to  what  was  meant  by  the 
"wooden  walls."  Some  thought  the  Pythian  priestess  directed 
the  Athenians  to  seek  refuge  in  the  forests  on  the  mountains ; 
others,  that  the  oracle  meant  they  should  defend  the  Acropohs, 
which  in  ancient  times  had  been  surrounded  with  a  wooden 
palisade ;  but  Themistocles  (who  it  is  thought  may  have  himself 
prompted  the  oracle)  contended  that  the  ships  were  plainly 
indicated. 

The  last  interpretation  was  acted  upon.  All  the  soldiers  of 
Attica  were  crowded  upon  the  vessels  of  the  fleet  at  Salamis.  The 
aged  men,  with  the  women  and  children,  were  carried  out  of  the 
country  to  different  places  of  safety.  All  the  towns  of  Attica,  with 
the  capital,  were  thus  abandoned  to  the  conquerors. 

6  While  Leonidas  and  his  men  were  striving  to  hold  the  pass,  the  Greek  fleet, 
stationed  at  Artemisium  at  the  head  of  the  island  of  Eiiboea,  was  endeavoring  to 
prevent  the  Persian  fleet  from  entering  the  strait  between  the  island  and  the  mainland. 
For  three  days  the  Greeks  fought  here  the  Persian  ships  (the  battle  of  Artemisium), 
and  then,  upon  receipt  of  the  news  that  the  pass  was  lost,  retreated  down  the  Euboean 
straits,  and  came  to  anchor  in  the  gulf  of  Salamis,  near  Athens. 


THE  NAVAL  BATTLE  OF  SALAMIS 


97 


A  few  days  afterwards  the  Persians  entered  upon  the  deserted 
plain,  which  they  rendered  more  desolate  by  ravaging  the  fields 
and  burning  the  empty  towns.  Athens  shared  the  common  fate, 
and  her  temples  sank  in  flames.  Sardis  was  avenged.  The  joy 
in  distant  Susa  was  unbounded. 

212.  The  Naval  Battle  of  Salamis  (480  b.c.).  — Just  off  the 
coast  of  Attica,  separated  from  the  mainland  by  a  narrow  passage 
of  water,  hes  the  island  of  Salamis.  Here  lay  the  Greek  fleet,'^ 
awaiting  the   Persian  attack.     To   hasten  on  the  attack  before 


Athens  and  Salamis 

dissensions  should  divide  the  Greek  forces,  Themistocles  resorted 
to  the  following  stratagem.  He  sent  a  messenger  to  Xerxes 
representing  that  he  himself  was  ready  to  espouse  the  Persian 
cause,  and  advised  an  immediate  attack  upon  the  alHed  fleet, 
which  he  represented  as  being  in  no  condition  to  make  any 
formidable  resistance.  Xerxes  was  deceived.  He  ordered  an 
immediate  attack.  From  a  lofty  throne  upon  the  shore  he  him- 
self overlooked  the  scene  and  watched  the  result.  The  Persian 
fleet  was  broken  to  pieces  and  two  hundred  of  the  ships  destroyed.^ 

^  Under  the  supreme  command  of  the  Spartan  Eurybiades. 

8  The  entire  Persian  fleet  numbered  about  750  vessels;  the  Grecian,  about  380 
^ips,  mostly  triremes. 


198  THE   PERSIAN    WARS 

The  blow  was  decisive.  Xerxes,  fearing  that  treachery  might 
burn  or  break  the  Hellespontine  bridges,  instantly  dispatched  a 
hundred  ships  to  protect  them ;  and  then,  leaving  Mardonius  with 
three  hundred  thousand  men  to  retrieve  the  disaster  of  Salamis, 
and  effect,  as  he  promised  to  do,  the  conquest  of  the  rest  of 
Greece,  the  monarch  with  a  strong  escort  made  an  ignominious 
retreat  into  Asia. 

213.  Mardonius  tries  to  bribe  the  Athenians;  the  Battle  of 
Plataea  (479  b.c).  —  With  the  opening  of  the  spring  of  479  b.c, 
Mardonius  sent  an  embassy  to  Athens,  promising  the  Athenians 
many  things  provided  they  would  come  over  to  the  Persian  side. 
The  Athenians'  reply  was,  "  While  the  sun  holds  his  course  in  the 
heavens,  we  will  never  form  a  league  with  the  Persian  king." 

Upon  receiving  this  answer  Mardonius,  breaking  up  his  winter 
camp  in  Thessaly,   marched   south,   and,  after  ravaging  Attica 

anew,  withdrew  into  Boeotia.  Sit- 
ting down  in  a  fortified  camp  near 
Thebes,  he  awaited  the  coming  of 
the  Greeks.  Here  the  Greeks 
confronted  him  with  the  largest 
army  they  had  ever  gathered.^  In 
the  battle  which  followed,  known 
as  the  battle  of  Plataea,  Mardonius 
was  slain  and  his  army  virtually 

annihilated. 

Fig.  84.  -  HOPLITE,  or  Heavy-  ^^^  g^^y^  ^^  jl       j^  , 

Armed  Greek  Warrior  j  \-r,y 

B.C.).  —  Upon  the  same  day,  ac- 
cording to  tradition,  that  the  Greeks  won  the  victory  over  the 
Persian  army  at  Plataea,  they  gained  another  over  a  combined 
land  and  sea  force  at  Cape  Mycale  in  lonia.^^ 

This  victory  at  Mycale  was  a  fitting  sequel  to  the  one  at  Plataea  : 
that  had  freed  European  Greece  from  the  presence  of  the  bar- 
barians ;  this,  in  the  phrase  of  Herodotus,  "  restored  to  Grecian 

9  There  were  110,000  men,  of  which  number  38,000  were  hoplites.  The  Spartan 
Pausanias  was  in  chief  command. 

10  The  Spartan  king  Leotychides  was  in  chief  command  of  the  aUied  Greek  fleet 


MEMORIALS  AND   TROPHIES   OF   THE   WAR      199 

freedom  the  Hellespont  and  the  islands."  For  straightway  Samos, 
Chios,  Lesbos,  and  other  islands  of  the  JEgesm  that  had  been  in 
vassalage  to  Persia  were  now  liberated,  and  received  as  members 
into  the  confederacy  of  the  patriot  states  of  the  mother  land.^^ 

215.  Memorials  and  Trophies  of  the  War.  —  The  glorious  issue 
of  the  war  caused  a  general  burst  of  joy  and  exultation  through- 
out Greece.  Poets,  artists,  and  orators  all  vied  with  one  another 
in  commemorating  the  deeds  of  the  heroes  whose  valor  had 
warded  off  the  impending  danger. 

Nor  did  the  pious  Greeks  think  that  the  marvelous  deliverance 
had  been  effected  without  the  intervention  of  the  gods  in  their 
behalf.  To  the  temple  at  Delphi  was  gratefully  consecrated  a 
tenth  of  the  immense  spoils  in  gold  and  silver  from  the  field  of 
Platsea;  and  upon  the  Acropolis  at  Athens  was  erected  a  colossal 
statue  of  Athena,  made  from  the  brazen  arms  gathered  from  the 
field  at  Marathon,  while  within  the  sanctuary  of  the  goddess  were 
placed  the  broken  cables  of  the  Hellespontine  bridges,  at  once  a 
proud  trophy  of  victory  and  a  signal  illustration  of  the  divine 
punishment  that  had  befallen  the  audacious  and  impious  attempt 
to  lay  a  yoke  upon  the  sacred  waters  of  the  Hellespont. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  ^schylus,  T/ie  Persians ;  an  his- 
torical drama  which  celebrates  the  victory  of  Salamis,  Herodotus,  v. 
49-54 ;  Aristagoras  pleads  before  Cleomenes.  Plutarch,  Life  of  Thetnis- 
tocles  and  Life  of  Aristides. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  ii,  pp.  209-238  and  271-331. 
Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  iii,  pp.  492-521 ;  vol.  iv,  pp.  102-201  and 
242-294.  Abbott,  vol.  ii,  pp.  74-139  and  175-205.  Holm,  vol.  ii,  chaps, 
i-iv.  Cox,  The  Greeks  and  the  Persians.  Creasy,  Decisive  Battles  of 
the  World,  chap,  i,  "The  Battle  of  Marathon."  Church,  Pictures  from 
Greek  Life  and  Story,  chaps,  iii-viii ;  for  youthful  readers.  Teachers  will 
find  valuable  topographical  material  in  Grundy,  The  Great  Persian  War. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  Delphian  oracle  in  the  Persian 
Wars.  2.  Themistocles.  3.  ^schylus'  The  Persians,  4.  Incidents  of 
the  battle  of  Salamis.     5.  The  story  of  Plataea. 

11  On  the  very  day  of  the  battle  of  Salamis,  according  to  tradition,  Gelo,  tyrant 
of  Syracuse,  gained  a  great  victory  over  the  Carthaginians  under  Hamilcar  at  the 
battle  of  Himera,  in  the  north  of  Sicily.  So  it  was  a  memorable  day  for  Hellas  in 
the  West  as  well  as  in  the  East. 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE  MAKING  OF   THE   ATHENIAN  EMPIRE 

(479-445  ^■^■) 

216.  The  Rebuilding  of  Athens;  the  New  "Walls.  —  After  the 
battle  of  Plataea  and  the  expulsion  of  the  barbarians  from  Greece, 
the  Athenians  who  had  found  an  asylum  at  Salamis,  ^gina,  and 
other  places  returned  to  Athens.  They  found  only  a  heap  of 
ruins  where  their  city  had  once  stood. 

Under  the  lead  of  Themistocles,  the  people  with  admirable 
spirit  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  rebuilding  their  homes  and 
erecting  new  walls.  The  exalted  hopes  for  the  future  of  their 
city  which  had  been  raised  in  the  Athenians  by  their  almost 
incredible  achievements  during  the  past  few  months,  together 
with  their  resolve  to  create  an  asylum  large  enough  to  receive  the 
whole  population  of  Attica  in  case  of  another  invasion,  so  that 
they  should  never  again  be  forced  to  become  exiles  without  a 
city,  led  them  to  trace  a  vast  circuit  of  seven  miles  around  the 
AcropoHs  as  the  line  of  the  new  ramparts. 

The  rivalstates  of  the  Peloponnesian  League  watched  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Athenians  with  the  most  jealous  interest.  The 
Spartans  sent  an  embassy  to  dissuade  them  from  rebuilding  their 
walls,  hypocritically  assigning  as  the  ground  of  their  interest  in 
the  matter  their  fear  lest,  in  case  of  another  Persian  invasion, 
the  city,  if  captured,  should  become  a  stronghold  for  the  enemy. 
But  the  Athenians  persisted  in  their  purpose,  and  in  a  marvel- 
ously  short  time  had  raised  the  wall  to  such  a  height  that  they 
could  defy  interference. 

217.  The  Fortifications  of  the  Piraeus  (478-477  B.C.). — At  the 
same  time  that  the  work  of  restoration  was  going  on  at  Athens, 
the  fortifications  of  the  harbor  of  Piraeus,  begun,  as  we  have  seen, 
at  an  earUer  date  (sec.  206),  were  being  enlarged  and  strengthened. 


THE   TREACHERY   OF   PAUSANIAS  201 

Themistocles  was  here  merely  carrying  out  the  maritime  policy 
which  he  had  formulated  for  the  Athenians  before  the  invasion 
of  Xerxes,  and  to  which  the  circumstances  of  the  past  few 
months  had  given  a  most  emphatic  indorsement.  That  Athens' 
supremacy  depended  upon  control  of  the  sea  had  become  plain 
to  all.  Consequently  the  haven  town  was  now  surrounded  with 
walls  even  surpassing  in  strength  and  fully  equahng  in  compass 
the  new  walls  of  the  upper  city.  The  Piraeus  soon  grew  into 
a  bustling  commercial  city,  one  of  the  chief  centers  of  trade  in 
the  Hellenic  world. 

In  close  connection  with  Themistocles'  policy  respecting  the 
Piraeus  itself  stands  his  policy  in  regard  to  the  Athenian  navy. 
The  advice  which  he  had  given  the  Athenians  respecting  the 
creation  of  a  fleet  had  proved  so  wise  and  prescient  that  they 
were  quite  ready  now  to  Usten  to  his  further  counsel,  so  that 
he  easily  led  them  to  the  resolve  to  add  each  year  twenty  well- 
equipped  triremes  to  the  fleet  with  which  they  had  fought  at 
Salamis.^ 

218.  The  Treachery  of  Pausanias.  — While  the  building  opera- 
tions we  have  described  were  going  on  at  Athens  and  the  Piraeus, 
the  confederate  fleet,  under  the  command  of  the  Spartan  Pau- 
sanias, was  engaged  in  setting  free  those  Greek  cities  which  were 
still  held  enslaved  by  the  Persians. 

The  elevation  to  which  he  had  been  lifted  seems  to  have  pro- 
duced in  Pausanias  a  sort  of  dizziness.  His  insensate  ambition 
suggested  to  him  the  scheme  of  making  himself  tyrant  of  all 
Greece.  He  beHeved  that,  by  securing  the  cooperation  of 
Xerxes  through  offering  to  rule  in  Greece  as  his  viceroy,  he 
could  consummate  this  amazing  piece  of  treachery.  In  pur- 
suance of  his  plans,  he  sent  to  Susa  the  Persian  prisoners  he 

1  A  few  years  after  this  Themistocles  fell  into  disfavor  and  was  ostracized 
(471  B.C.).  He  finally  bent  his  steps  to  Susa,  the  Persian  capital.  King  Artaxerxes 
appointed  him  governor  of  Magnesia  in  Asia  Minor  and  made  provision  for  his 
wants  by  assigning  to  three  cities  the  duty  of  providing  for  his  table:  one  was  to 
furnish  bread,  a  second  wine,  and  a  third  meat.  Plutarch  relates  that  one  day  as 
the  exile  sat  down  to  his  richly  loaded  board  he  exclaimed,  "  How  much  we  should 
have  lost,  my  children,  if  we  had  not  been  ruined  !  "    He  died  probably  about  460  B.C. 


202  MAKING   OF   THE   ATHENIAN   EMPIRE 

had  taken,  together  with  a  letter  in  which  he  actually  offered 
to  become  the  son-in-law  of  the  Great  King. 

Xerxes  was  naturally  greatly  pleased  with  the  prospect  thus 
afforded  him  of  yet  annexing  Greece  as  a  satrapy  to  his  empire, 
and  sent  Pausanias  assurances  of  every  assistance  in  men  and 
money.  The  head  of  Pausanias  seemed  now  to  be  completely 
turned.  He  dressed  like  a  Persian,  surrounded  himself  with 
Persian  guards,  and  deported  himself  generally  as  though  already 
a  satrap  of  the  Great  King  and  tyrant  of  Hellas. 

Matters  soon  reached  a  crisis.  Some  Ionian  sailors,  indignant 
beyond  self-restraint  at  the  conduct  of  Pausanias,  while  cruising 
one  day,  purposely  ran  their  ship  into  his  galley ;  and  when  he, 
beside  himself  with  rage,  upbraided  them  for  their  conduct,  they 
told  him  to  betake  himself  home,  adding  that  nothing  but  the 
memory  of  Plataea  restrained  them  from  visiting  upon  him  then 
and  there  the  punishment  he  so  richly  deserved. 

Shortly  after  this  a  summons  came  to  Pausanias  from  the  Ephors 
at  Sparta,  whither  information  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  fleet 
had  been  carried,  commanding  him  to  return  home  and  give  an 
explanation  of  his  behavior.^ 

Having  repudiated  the  authority  of  Pausanias,  the  Ionian  fleet 
straightway  turned  to  the  Athenian  general  Aristides  as  leader 
and  commander.  Thus  was  transferred  from  Sparta  to  Athens 
that  command  of  the  allied  fleet  of  the  Greek  cities  which  the 
Athenians  had  patriotically  yielded  to  the  Spartans  when  the  inva- 
sion by  Xerxes  was  impending  (sec.  208),  but  to  which  even  at  that 
time  they  had  a  just  claim,  as  having  the  largest  navy  in  Hellas. 

219.  The  Formation  of  the  Confederacy  of  Delos  (477  b.c). — 
Under  the  inspiration  of  Aristides,  the  Ionian  states,  in  order 
that  they  might  be  able  to  carry  on  more  effectively  the  work  to 
which  they  had  set  their  hands  of  liberating  the  Greek  cities  yet 
in  the  power  of  the  Persians,  now  formed  a  league  known  as  the 

2  Pausanias  obeyed  the  summons  of  the  Ephors.  He  escaped  punishment  at  this 
time,  but  a  little  later  he  was  caught  in  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  Persians. 
To  avoid  arrest  he  fled  for  refuge  to  the  sanctuary  of  Athena  at  Sparta.  The  Ephors, 
not  daring  to  seize  him  there,  caused  the  roof  of  the  temple  to  be  removed,  and  walling 
up  the  entrance,  left  the  traitor  to  die  of  starvation  (about  470  B.C.). 


THE  CONFEDERACY   OF   DELOS  203 

Confederacy  of  Delos,  in  which  Sparta  and  her  Peloponnesian 
alhes  were  to  have  no  part.  All  the  Asian  cities  of  Ionia  and 
^olis,  almost  all  the  island  towns  of  the  ^gean,  the  cities  of 
Chalcidice,  together  with  those  just  set  free  along  the  Hellespont 
and  the  Bosporus,  became  members  of  the  alliance.  The  league 
was  a  free  association  of  independent  and  equal  states.  Athens 
was  indeed  to  be  Ihe  head  of  the  confederacy,  but  she  was  not  on 
that  account  to  possess  or  to  exercise  any  irresponsible  authority 
over  the  oJ;her  members  of  the  union.  Aristides  was  chosen  as 
the  first  president.  Matters  of  common  concern  were  to  be  in 
the  hands  of  a  congress  convened  yearly  in  the  sacred  island  of 
Delos  and  composed  of  delegates  from  all  the  cities. 

At  Delos,  also,  in  the  temple  of  Apollo  was  to  be  kept  the  com- 
mon treasure  chest,  to  which  each  state  was  to  make  contribution 
according  to  its  ability.  What  proportion  of  the  ships  and  money 
should  be  contributed  by  the  several  states  for  carrying  out  the 
purposes  of  the  union  was  left  at  first  entirely  to  the  decision  of 
Aristides,  such  was  the  confidence  all  possessed  in  his  fairness  and 
incorruptible  integrity ;  and  so  long  as  he  retained  control  of  the 
matter,  none  of  the  allies  ever  had  cause  for  complaint. 

The  formation  of  this  Delian  league  constitutes  a  prominent 
landmark  in  Grecian  history.  It  meant  not  simply  the  transfer  from 
Sparta  to  Athens  of  leadership  in  the  maritime  affairs  of  Hellas.  ~ 
It  meant  that  all  the  promises  of  Panhellenic  union  in  the  great 
alliance  formed  at  Corinth  in  481  B.C.  had  come  to  naught.  It 
meant,  since  the  Peloponnesian  Confederacy  still  continued  to  exist, 
that  henceforth  Hellas  was  to  be  a  house  divided  against  itself. 

220.  The  Athenians  convert  the  Delian  League  into  an  Empire. 
—  The  Confederacy  of  Delos  laid  the  basis  of  the  imperial  power 
of  Athens.  The  Athenians  misused  their  authority  as  leaders  of 
the  league,  and  gradually,  during  the  interval  between  the  forma- 
tion of  the  union  and  the  beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War, 
reduced  their  allies,  or  confederates,  to  the  condition  of  tributaries 
and  subjects. 

Athens  transformed  the  league  into  an  empire  in  the  following 
manner.   The  contributions  assessed  by  Aristides  upon  the  different 


204  MAKING  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE 

members  of  the  confederation  consisted  of  ships  for  the  larger 
states  and  of  money  payments  for  the  smaller  ones.  From  the 
first,  Athens  attended  to  this  assessment  matter,  and  saw  to  it  that 
each  member  of  the  league  made  its  proper  contribution. 

After  a  while,  some  of  the  cities  preferring  to  make  a  money  pay- 
ment in  heu  of  ships,  Athens  accepted  the  commutation,  and  then, 
building  the  ships  herself,  added  them  to  her  own  navy.  Thus 
the  confederates  disarmed  themselves  and  armed  their  master. 

Very  soon  the  restraints  which  Athens  imposed  upoji  her  aUies 
became  irksome,  and  they  began  to  refuse,  one  after  another,  to 
pay  the  assessment  in  any  form.  Naxos,  one  of  the  Cyclades, 
was  the  first  island  to  secede  from  the  league  (466  B.C.).  But 
Athens  had  no  idea  of  admitting  any  such  doctrine  of  state  rights, 
and  with  her  powerful  navy  forced  the  Naxians  to  remain  within 
the  union  and  to  pay  an  increased  tribute. 

What  happened  in  the  case  of  Naxos  happened  in  the  case 
of  other  members  of  the  confederation.  By  the  year  449  B.C. 
only  three  of  the  island  members  of  the  league  —  Lesbos,  Chios, 
and  Samos  —  still  retained  their  independence.  They  alone  of 
all  the  former  allies  did  not  pay  tribute. 

Even  before  the  date  last  named  (probably  about  457  B.C.)  the 
Athenians  had  transferred  the  common  treasury  from  Delos  to 
Athens,  and,  diverting  the  tribute  from  its  original  purpose,  were 
beginning  to  spend  it,  not  in  the  prosecution  of  war  against  the 
barbarians,  but  in  the  carrying  on  of  home  enterprises,  as  though 
the  treasure  were  their  own  revenue.  About  this  time  also  the 
congress  probably  ceased  to  exist. 

Thus  what  had  been  simply  a  voluntary  confederation  of 
sovereign  and  independent  cities  was  converted  into  what  was 
practically  an  absolute  monarchy,  with  the  Attic  democracy  as  the 
imperial  master.  Thus  did  Athens  become  a  "  tyrant  city."  From 
being  the  liberator  of  the  Greek  cities  she  had  become  their 
enslaver. 

What  made  this  servitude  of  the  former  allies  of  Athens  all 
the  more  galling  was  the  fact  that  they  themselves  had  been  com- 
pelled to  forge  the  very  chains  which  fettered  them ;  for  it  was 


THE   LEADERSHIP   OF   CIMON  205 

their  money  that  had  built  and  was  maintaining  the  fleet  by  which 
they  were  kept  in  subjection  and  forced  to  do  whatever  might  be 
the  will  of  the  Athenians.^ 

221.  The  Leadership  of  Cimon.  —  One  of  the  ablest  and  most 
distinguished  of  the  generals  who  commanded  the  forces  of  the 
Athenians  during  this  same  period  when  they  were  enslaving  their 
confederates  was  Cimon,  the  son  of  Miltiades.  After  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Persians  from  Greece,  he  became  one  of  the  most 
successful  of  the  Grecian  admirals  to  whom  was  intrusted  the  com- 
mand of  the  armaments  designed  to  wrest  from  them  the  islands 
of  the  ^gean  and  the  Hellenic  cities  of  the  Asiatic  coast.* 

But  Cimon  was  something  more  than  a  mere  soldier  and  admiral. 
He  was  a  statesman  whose  policies,  though  possibly  sometimes 
unwise,  were  at  least  patriotic  and  indicative  of  an  outlook  that 
embraced  not  Athens  alone  but  all  Hellas.  His  disposition  was 
kind  and  generous,  and  he  dispensed  his  riches  with  a  free  hand 
in  benefactions  to  the  poor,  in  the  erection  of  magnificent  public 
monuments  at  Athens,  and  in  the  beautifying  of  the  parks  and 
walks  in  and  about  the  city. 

222.  Revolt  of  the  Spartan  Helots;  Cimon's  Loss  of  Favor. — 
The  popularity  of  Cimon  at  last  declined,  and  he  suffered  ostra- 
cism, as  had  Aristides  and  Themistocles  before  him. 

Cimon's  loss  of  public  favor  came  about  in  this  manner.  In 
the  year  464  B.C.  vSparta  was  almost  completely  destroyed  by  an 
earthquake.  Twenty  thousand  of  the  inhabitants  are  said  to  have 
perished.  No  sooner  had  the  news  of  the  situation  at  Sparta 
spread  among  the  Helots,  than  they  seized  arms  and  hastened 
thither  with  the  purpose  of  making  an  end  once  for  all  of  their 
oppressors.  But  the  Spartans  who  had  survived  the  catastrophe 
were  on  the  alert,  and  the  attack  was  repulsed.  The  Messenians, 
however,  were  now  in  arms.     Intrenching  themselves  in  the  old 

3  Sentiment  in  most  of  the  subject  cities,  it  should  be  noted,  was  divided.  While 
the  aristocratic  class  was  generally  the  bitter  enemy  of  Athens,  the  lower  classes 
were  as  a  rule  friends  of  the  Athenian  democracy.  But  the  frequent  revolts  from 
Athens  show  how  strong  in  most  cases  was  the  sentiment  of  home  rule. 

4  Of  his  many  victories  over  the  Persians  the  most  important  was  that  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Eurymedon,  in  Pamphylia,  in  466  B.C. 


2o6  MAKING  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE 

stronghold  of  Mount  Ithome,  they  maintained  against  their  formeT 
masters  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  known  as  the  Third  Messenian 
War  (464-456  B.C.). 

The  Spartans,  finding  themselves  unable  to  reduce  their  revolted 
serfs  to  submission,  were  forced  to  ask  aid  of  the  other  Grecian 
states.  Pericles,  one  of  the  leading  statesmen  in  Athens  at  this 
time,  implored  his  countrymen  not  to  lend  themselves  to  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  power  of  their  rival.  But  the  aristocratic  Cimon,  who 
had  always  entertained  the  most  friendly  feelings  for  the  Spartans, 
exhorted  the  Athenians  to  put  aside  all  sentiments  of  enmity  and 
jealousy,  and  to  extend  succor  to  their  kinsmen  in  this  desperate 
posture  of  their  affairs.  "  Let  not  Greece,"  said  he,  "  be  lamed, 
and  thus  Athens  herself  be  deprived  of  her  yoke  fellow."  The 
great  services  Cimon  had  rendered  the  state  entitled  him  to  be 
heard.  The  assembly  voted  as  he  advised,  and  so  the  Athenians 
fought  for  some  time  side  by  side  with  the  Lacedaemonians. 

But  the  Spartans  were  distrustful  of  the  sincerity  of  their  allies, 
and  this  feehng  gradually  grew  into  positive  fear  lest  the  Athenians 
should  take  advantage  of  their  position  in  the  country  and  pass 
over  to  the  side  of  the  enemy.  Acting  under  this  apprehension, 
which  was  probably  entirely  groundless,  they,  with  characteristic 
Spartan  bluntness,  dismissed  the  Athenian  forces.^ 

The  discourtesy  of  this  action  aroused  the  most  bitter  resentment 
at  Athens.  The  party  of  Pericles,  who  had  opposed  the  policy 
of  lending  aid  to  their  rivals  as  unwise  and  weakly  sentimental, 
took  advantage  of  the  angry  feehngs  of  the  people  to  secure  the 
ostracism  of  Cimon  as  the  leader  of  the  aristocratic  party  and  the 
friend  of  Sparta®  (461  B.C.).  At  the  same  time  Pericles  and  his 
friend  and  supporter  Ephialtes,  as  the  leaders  of  the  liberal  party, 
effected  some  important  changes  in  the  Athenian  constitution^ 
which  made  it  almost  purely  democratic  in  character. 

5  After  a  prolonged  struggle  the  Spartans  succeeded  in  subduing  the  rebellion 
and  in  reestablishing  throughout  Messenia  the  old  order  of  things. 

6  Cimon  was  recalled  from  exile  in  454  B.C.  and  again  led  the  fleets  of  Athens 
against  the  Persians.     He  died  in  the  year  449  B.C. 

7  These  changes  concerned  the  ancient  council  of  the  Areopagus.  The  great  and 
patriotic  services  rendered  by  this  council  during  the  Persian  Wars  had  given  it  a 


PERICLES  COMES  TO  THE  HEAD  OF  AFFAIRS      207 

223.  Pericles  comes  to  the  Head  of  Affairs  (about  460  b.c.)  ; 
Ms  Policy.  —  Pericles  was  now  the  most  prominent  leader  in 
Athens,^  and  from  this  time  on  until  his  death  shortly  after  the 
opening  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  he  was  the  very  soul  of  the 
Athenian  democracy. 

His  policy  was  just  the  opposite  of  that  of  Cimon,  which  was 
the  maintenance  in  Greece  of  a  dual  hegemony,  Sparta  being 
allowed  leadership  on  land  and  Athens  leadership  on  the  sea. 


Athens  and  her  Long  Walls' 


place  of  great  influence  and  power  during  the  years  immediately  following  the  battles 
of  Salamis  and  Plataea.  But  public  sentiment  had  now  changed.  The  council  was 
regarded  by  the  democratic  party  with  some  such  feelings  of  distrust  and  hatred  as 
are  entertained  by  the  English  Liberals  towards  the  House  of  Lords.  It  seemed  to 
them,  as  indeed  it  was,  the  stronghold  of  aristocratic  prejudice  and  conservatism. 
The  court  was  now  stripped  of  important  powers,  which  were  conferred  upon  the 
various  courts  and  boards  of  a  popular  character.  This  reform  amounted  to  a  revo- 
lution. It  swept  away  the  last  bulwark  in  the  constitution  against  the  inroads  of  the 
democratic  spirit.  It  removed  the  last  check  upon  the  will  of  the  people.  Henceforth 
the  Athenians  were  to  be  their  own  censors  and  judges  as  well  as  their  own  legislators. 

8  The  very  year  that  Cimon  was  ostracized,  Ephialtes,  the  able  liberal  statesman 
who  had  led  the  attack  upon  the  Areopagus,  had  been  struck  down  by  the  hand  of 
an  assassin. 

9  It  is  the  opinion  of  Ernest  Arthur  Gardner,  in  opposition  to  the  view  which  has 
been  generally  held,  that  there  were  only  two  walls,  the  one  shown  on  the  map  as  the 
Southern  being  the  so-called  Phaleric  Wall.    See  his  Ancient  Athens,  pp.  56-59. 


208  MAKING  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE 

Pericles  believed  that  such  a  double  leadership  was  impracticable, 
and  the  whole  aim  of  his  policy  was  to  make  the  authority  of 
Athens  supreme  not  only  on  the  sea  but  also  on  the  land. 

224.  Pericles  fosters  the  Naval  Power  of  Athens  ;  the  Construc- 
tion of  the  Long  Walls ;  the  Conquest  of  ^gina  (456  B.C.).  —  As 
a  part  of  his  maritime  policy,  Pericles  persuaded  the  Athenians 
to  push  to  completion  what  were  known  as  the  Long  Walls  ^° 
(about  457-455  B.C.),  which  united  Athens  to  the  port  of  Pirseus. 
By  means  of  these  great  ramparts  Athens  and  her  principal  port, 
with  the  intervening  land,  were  converted  into  a  vast  fortified 
district,  capable  in  time  of  war  of  holding  the  entire  population 
of  Attica.  With  her  communication  with  the  sea  thus  secured,  and 
with  a  powerful  navy  at  her  command,  Athens  could  bid  defiance 
to  her  foes  on  sea  and  land. 

One  of  the  most  important  conquests,  in  its  bearing  upon  their 
maritime  supremacy,  made  by  the  Athenians  during  Pericles'  lead- 
ership, was  the  subjugation  of  the  island  of  ^gina,  which  Hes  in 
front  of  the  harbor  of  Piraeus.  This  small  but  powerful  state, 
which  for  a  long  time  had  been  a  formidable  rival  of  Athens  by 
sea,  was  now  compelled  to  surrender  its  war  galleys  and  to  pay 
tribute  (456  B.C.). 

225.  Pericles  tries  in  vain  to  create  a  Land  Empire;  the  Thirty 
Years'  Truce  (445  b.c).  —  At  the  same  time  that  Pericles  was 
making  Athens'  supremacy  by  sea  more  secure,  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  build  up  for  her  a  land  empire  in  Central  Greece.  As  Athe- 
nian influence  in  this  quarter  increased,  Sparta  became  more  and 
more  jealous,  and  strove  to  counteract  it  by  enhancing  the  power 
of  Thebes,  and  by  lending  support  to  the  aristocratic  party  in 
the  various  cities  of  Boeotia. 

The  contest  between  the  two  rivals  was  long  and  bitter.  At 
first  the  Athenians  were  worsted,  but  at  length  the  tide  turned 
in  their  favor.     All  the  cities  of  Boeotia,  Phocis,  and  Locris  fell 


10  It  is  probable  that  Cimon  began  the  work  on  these  defenses.  The  ramparts 
were  each  between  four  and  five  miles  in  length,  and  sixty  feet  high.  They  were 
defended  by  numerous  towers,  which,  when  Athens  became  crowded,  were  used  as 
shops  and  private  dwellings. 


THE  THIRTY  YEARS'   TRUCE  209 

under  the  power  of  Athens,  and  it  seemed  as  though  Pericles' 
dream  of  a  land  empire  as  well  as  of  a  naval  dominion  was  about 
to  be  realized. 

But  fortune  once  more  inclined  to  the  side  of  the  aristocratic 
party.  The  Athenian  army  experienced  an  overwhelming  defeat 
(at  Coronea,  447  B.C.),  and  Pericles  was  fain  to  seek  peace  with 
Sparta.  The  negotiations  ended  in  the  well-known  Peace  of  Peri- 
cles, or  the  Thirty  Years'  Truce  (445  B.C.).  By  its  terms  each 
of  the  rival  cities  was  left  at  the  head  of  the  confederation  it  had 
formed,  but  neither  was  to  interfere  with  the  subjects  or  allies 
of  the  other,  while  those  cities  of  Hellas  which  were  not  yet 
members  of  either  league  were  to  be  left  free  to  join  either 
according  to  choice. 

The  real  meaning  of  the  truce  was  that  Athens  gave  up  her 
ambition  to  establish  a  land  empire  and  was  henceforth  to  be 
content  with  supremacy  on  the  seas. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Aristides  and  Life 
of  Cimon.  Thucydides,  i.  90-93 ;  tells  how  Themistocles  outwitted 
Sparta. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  ii,  pp.  353-459-  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vol.  iv,  pp.  330-437.  Abbott,  vol.  ii,  pp.  243-415.  Holm, 
vol.  ii,  chaps,  vii-xiv.  Allcroft,  The  Making  of  Athens,  chaps,  viii  and 
X.  Oman,  History  of  Greece,  chaps,  xxii-xxiv.  Bury,  History  of  Greece, 
chap.  viii.  Cox,  The  Athenian  Empire  (earlier  chapters) ;  and  Lives 
of  Athenian  Statesmen,  "Aristeides,"  "  Themistokles,"  "  Pausanias," 
"  Kimon."  Greenidge,  Handbook  of  Greek  Constitutional  History, 
chap,  vi,  sec.  5. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  Confederacy  of  Delos.  2.  Cimon. 
3.  Aristides.  4.  Athens'  relations  to  the  cities  of  her  empire.  5.  The 
ancient  temple  as  a  sanctuary  or  place  of  refuge. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


THE  AGE  OF  PERICLES 

(445-431  B.C.) 

226.  General  Character  of  the  Period. — The  fourteen  years 
immediately  following  the  Thirty  Years'  Truce  are  usually  desig- 
nated as  the  Years  of  Peace.  During  all  this  period  Athens  was 
involved  in  only  one  short  war  of  note.  And  not  only  was  there 
peace  throughout  the  empire  of  Athens,  but  also  throughout  the 
Mediterranean  world.  There  was  peace  between  the  Eastern 
Greeks  and  the  Persians,  as  well  as  between  the  Western  Greeks 
and  the  Carthaginians.  The  rising  city  of 
Rome,  too,  was  at  peace  with  her  neighbors. 
Thus  there  was  peace  throughout  the  world, 
as  happened  again  four  centuries  later  in  the 
reign  of  the  Roman  6mperor  Augustus  (sec. 
507).  And  as  that  later  period  of  peace 
marked  the  Golden  Age  of  Rome,  so  did  this 
earlier  era  mark  the  Golden  Age  of  Athens.^ 
The  epoch,  as  we  here  limit  it,  embraced 
less  than  half  the  lifetime  of  a  single  genera- 
tion, yet  its  influence  upon  the  civilization  of 
the  world  can  hardly  be  overrated.  During 
this  short  period  Athens  gave  birth  to  more 
great  men  —  poets,  artists,  statesmen,  and  philosophers  —  than  all 
the  world  besides  has  produced  in  any  period  of  equal  length. 

Among  all  the  great  men  of  this  age  Pericles  stood  preemi- 
nent. Such  was  the  impression  he  left  upon  the  period  in  which 
he  lived  that  it  is   called   after   him   the   Periclean  Age.^     Yet 

1  Lloyd,  The  Age  of  Pericles^  vol.  ii,  p.  11 1. 

2  This  designation  is  a  very  elastic  one :  by  it  is  often  meant  the  whole  period 
marked  by  the  influence  of  Pericles,  say  from  the  assassination  of  Ephialtes  in 


Fig.  85.  —  Pericles 


GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  THE  1'J:RI(JD   21  I 


Pericles'  authority  was  simply  that  which  talent  and  character 
justly  confer.  He  ruled,  as  Plutarch  says,  by  the  art  of  persua- 
sion.    His  throne  was  the  bema.^ 

The  people  were  at  this  period  the  source  and  fountain  of  all 
power.  The  reforms  and  revolutions  of  a  century  and  more  had 
finally  removed  all  restraints  upon  their  will,  and  that  will  was 
now  supreme. 
Every  matter 
which  concerned 
Athens  and  her 
empire  was  dis- 
cussed and  decided 
by  the  popular 
assembly.  Never 
before  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world 
had  any  people 
enjoyed  such  un- 
restricted political 
liberty  as  did  the 
citizens  of  Athens 
as  this  time,  and  never  before  were  any  people,  through  so  inti- 
mate a  knowlerlge  of  public  affairs,  so  well  fitted  to  take  part  in 
the  administration  of  government.     As  a  rule,  every  citizen  was 

461  B.C.  to  the  death  of  Pericles  in  429  B.C.;  and  again  it  is  employed  to  designate 
the  entire  period  of  Athenian  ascendancy  from  the  battle  of  Plata;a  to  the  outbreak 
of  the  Feloponnesian  War. 

3  It  is  natural,  of  course,  that  one  who  occupies  such  a  position  as  that  held  by 
Pericles  should  awaken  many  jealousies  and  stir  numerous  resentments.  And 
Pericles  did  have  many  enemies,  and  was  frequently  subjected  to  annoyance  and 
persecution.  Usually  the  attacks  upon  him  were  made  indirectly  through  his 
friends.  Thus  charges  of  corruption  and  sacrilege  were  brought  against  his  friend 
Phidias  (sec.  320,  n.  11),  which  without  doubt  were  primarily  intended  to  annoy 
Pericles.  Also  A?;pasia,  a  brilliant  Milesian  woman  who  was  associated  with  Peri- 
cles in  a  way  condemned  by  modern  morality,  was  charged  among  other  things  with 
impiety.  Pericles  was  able  to  sectire  her  acquittal  only  by  making  before  the  court 
a  most  abject  plea  in  her  defense.  Again,  Anaxagoras,  a  philosr)pher  to  the  lofti- 
ness of  whose  teachings  Plutarch  attributes  in  large  measure  the  elevation  and 
liberality  of  the  views  of  Pericles,  who  was  his  friend  and  disciple,  was  prosecuted 
on  the  charge  of  irreligion  (sec.  351). 


J   I',.   :■,().- 'I Hi:    UkMA,   or    CjkATOR's    STANI),    OS 

THE  Pnyx  Hill,  Athkns  (see  sec.  182,  n.  3) 
(From  a  photograph) 


212  THE   AGE   OF    PERICLES 

qualified  to  hold  public  office.  At  all  events  the  Athenians  acted 
upon  this  assumption,  as  is  shown  by  their  extremely  democratic 
practice  of  filling  almost  all  the  public  offices  by  the  use  of  the 
lot.  Only  a  very  few  positions,  and  these  in  the  army  and  navy, 
which  called  for  special  qualifications,  were  filled  by  ballot  or 
open  voting. 

227.  The  Limitation  of  Citizenship  to  Persons  of  Pure  Attic 
Descent.  —  A  few  years  before  the  time  where  we  have  now 
arrived,  Pericles  had  secured  the  enactment  of  a  law  which  had 
a  very  important  bearing  upon  the  history  of  the  period  with 
which  we  are  dealing.  This  was  a  law  limiting  Athenian  citi- 
zenship to  persons  born  of  an  Athenian  father  and  an  Athenian 
mother.^ 

The  passing  of  this  law  marks  a  most  significant  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  Athenian  state.  Up  to  this  time  Athens  had  been 
the  most  liberal  of  all  the  cities  of  Greece  in  the  admission 
of  aliens  or  semi-aHens  to  the  franchise  of  the  city,  and  it  was 
this  Hberal  policy  that  had  contributed  largely  to  make  Athens 
strong  and  to  give  her  the  imperial  position  she  held  among  the 
states  of  Hellas.  Aside  from  the  formation  of  a  federal  union 
like  the  later  Achaean  League  (sec.  304),- it  was  the  sole  policy 
through  which  Athens  could  hope  to  unite  into  a  real  nation  the 
various  cities  she  had  brought  under  her  rule.  It  was  the  policy 
which  Rome  was  just  now  adopting,  and  by  the  steady  adhesion 
to  which  she  was  to  make  of  the  multitude  of  Itahan  cities  and 
tribes  a  great  nation,  and  gain  the  dominion  of  the  world. ^ 

Probably  it  was  impossible  for  Athens  to  play  in  history  the 
part  of  Rome.  The  feeling  of  the  Greek  for  his  own  city  was 
too  strong.  But  we  cannot  help  asking  ourselves  when  we  see 
Athens  thus  abandoning  the  liberal  principle  which  had  carried 
her  so  far,  what  might  have  been  her  future  had  she  only  steadily 
adhered  to  her  earlier  policy  and  kept  her  gates,  as  Rome  did 

4  The  ground  for  this  piece  of  legislation  probably  was  that  since  the  rights  and 
y;^^.    privileges  of  Athenian  citizenship  were  becoming  valuable  those  possessing  these 
>■  rights  were  anxious  to  keep  them  as  exclusively  as  possible  to  themselves, 

6  Compare  sees.  391,  395,  415,  470,  471,  512,  and  527  of  the  Ancient  History 
(revised  ed.). 


SYSTEM   OF   PAYMENT   FOR   PUBLIC    SERVICES     213 

hers,  wide  open  to  strangers,  and  thereby  kept  full  and  strong 
the  ranks  of  her  citizens. 

We  are  told  that  as  an  immediate  result  of  the  law  in  question 
almost  five  thousand  persons  were  disfranchised. 

228.  Pericles  takes  the  Citizens  into  the  Pay  of  the  State.  — 
It  was  a  fixed  idea  of  Pericles  that  in  a  democracy  there  should 
be  not  only  an  equal  distribution  of  political  rights  among  all 
classes,  but  also  an  equahzation  of  the  means  and  opportunities 
of  exercising  these  rights,  together  with  an  equal  participation  by 
all  in  social  and  intellectual  enjoyments.  By  such  an  equaliza- 
tion of  the  privileges  and  pleasures  of  political  and  social  life,  he 
would  destroy  the  undue  influence  of  the  rich  over  the  poor,  and 
banish  class  envy  and  discord. 

In  promoting  his  views  Pericles  carried  to  great  length  the 
system  of  payment  for  the  most  common  public  services.  Thus 
he  introduced,  or  at  least  organized,  the  system  of  payment  for 
miUtary  services  ;  hitherto  the  Athenian,  save  probably  as  respects 
service  in  the  fleet,  had  served  his  country  in  time  of  war  with- 
out compensation.  He  also  secured  the  payment  of  the  citizen 
for  serving  as  a  juryman, — a  very  important  innovation.  Through 
his  influence  also,  or  that  of  his  party,  salaries  were,  during  this 
period,  attached  to  the  various  civil  offices,  all  of  which  were 
originally  unpaid  positions.  This  reform  enabled  the  poorer  citi- 
zens to  offer  themselves  as  candidates  for  the  different  magis- 
tracies, which  under  the  earher  system,  notwithstanding  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution,  had  been  practically  open  only 
to  men  of  means  and  leisure. 

It  was  the  same  motives  that  prompted  the  above  innovations 
which  led  Pericles  to  introduce  or  to  extend  the  practice  of  sup- 
plying all  the  citizens  with  free  tickets  to  the  theater  and  other 
places  of  amusement,  and  of  banqueting  the  people  on  festival 
days  at  the  public  expense.  Respecting  the  effect  of  these  par- 
ticular measures  upon  the  character  of  the  Athenian  democracy, 
we  shall  say  a  word  in  a  following  paragraph. 

The  outcome  of  the  general  policy  of  Pericles  was  that  before 
the  beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  almost  every  citizen  of 


214  THE   AGE   OF   PERICLES 

Athens  was  in  the  pay  of  the  state.  Aristotle  says  that  more  than 
twenty  thousand  were  receiving  payment  for  one  kind  of  service 
or  another.^ 

229.  The  Dicasteries.  —  Among  the  services  just  enumerated 
for  which  the  citizen  received  a  payment  from  the  state  was  that 
rendered  by  the  Athenian  juryman  in  the  great  popular  courts. 
These  tribunals  formed  such  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  Athens 
of  Pericles  that  we  must  pause  here  long  enough  to  cast  a  glance 
upon  them. 

Each  year  there  were  chosen  by  lot  from  those  Athenian  citizens 
of  thirty  years  of  age  and  upwards  who  had  volunteered  for  jury 
service  six  thousand  persons."^  One  thousand  of  this  number  was 
held  in  reserve ;  the  remaining  five  thousand  were  divided  into 
ten  sections  of  five  hundred  each.  These  divisions  were  called 
dicasteries^  and  the  members  dicasts  or  jurymen.  Although  the  full 
number  of  jurors  in  a  dicastery  was  five  hundred,  still  the  usual 
number  sitting  on  any  given  case  was  between  two  hundred  and 
four  hundred.  Sometimes,  however,  when  an  important  case  was 
to  be  heard,  the  jury  would  number  two  thousand  or  even  more. 

There  was  an  immense  amount  of  law  business  brought  before 
these  courts ;  for  they  tried  not  only  all  cases  arising  between  the 
citizens  of  Athens,  but  attended  also  to  a  large  part  of  the  law 
business  of  the  numerous  cities  of  Athens'  great  empire.  All  cases 
arising  between  subject  cities,  all  cases  in  which  an  Athenian 
citizen  was  interested,  and  finally,  indeed,  all  important  cases 
arising  in  the  dependent  states,  were  brought  to  Athens  and  heard 
in  these  courts.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  volume  of  business 
transacted  in  them  must  have  been  immense. 

The  pay  of  the  juror  was  at  first  one  obol  per  day ;  but  later 
this  was  increased  to  three  obols,  a  sum  equal  to  about  eight 

6  The  various  classes  and  magistrates  supported  by  the  pubhc  funds  are  given 
as  follows:  6000  dicasts,  1600  bowmen,  1200  horsemen,  500  senators,  500  harbor 
guards,  50  city  guards,  700  domestic  magistrates,  700  foreign  magistrates,  2500  hop- 
lites,  4000  sailors,  the  crews  of  20  watch  ships,  2000  sailors  forming  crews  of  ships 
employed  in  collecting  tribute,  together  with  jailers  and  other  officers  {Athenian 
Constitution^  ch.  24). 

7  Collectively  known  as  the  Hclicea, 


THE   DICASTERIES 


215 


cents  in  our  money.  This,  it  seems,  was  sufficient  to  maintain  an 
Athenian  citizen  of  the  poorer  class. 

When  a  case  was  to  be  tried,  it  was  assigned  by  lot  to  one  of 
the  dicasteries,  this  method  of  allotment  being  observed  in  order 
to  guard  against  bribery. 

The  average  Athenian  enjoyed  sitting  on  a  jury.  As  Lloyd 
says,  "  the  occupation  fell  in  wonderfully  with  his  humor."  The 
influence  of  the  courts  upon  the  Athenian  character  was  far  from 
wholesome.  They  fostered  certain  traits  of  the  Athenians  which 
needed  the  bridle  ,^-  ^., 


I 


\  1:' 


-^ 


rather  than  the 
goad. 

The  decision  of 
the  jurors  was 
final.  There  was 
no  body  or  coun- 
cil in  the  state  to 
review  their  deci- 
sion. The  judg- 
ment of  a  dicas- 
tery  was  never 
reversed  or  an- 
nulled. The  deci- 
sions of  the  dicasts 
were  not  always 
consonant  with  justice ;  but  probably  the  verdicts  were,  on  the 
whole,  as  just  and  reasonable  as  are  those  of  the  modern  jury. 

230.  Pericles  adorns  Athens  with  Public  Buildings.  —  Athens 
having  achieved  such  a  position  as  she  now  held,  it  was  the  idea 
of  Pericles  that  the  Athenians  should  so  adorn  their  city  that  it 
should  be  a  fitting  symbol  of  the  power  and  glory  of  their  empire. 
Nor  was  it  difficult  for  him  to  persuade  his  art-loving  countrymen 
to  embelhsh  their  city  with  those  masterpieces  of  architecture  that 


wm  -^ 


Fig.  87.  —  The  Caryatid  Porch  of  the 
Erechtheum.8     (From  a  photograph) 


8  The  Erechtheum  was  built,  some  time  after  the  death  of  Pericles,  on  the  site  of 
an  older  temple  which  perished  with  the  other  buildings  on  the  Acropolis  at  the  time 
of  the  Persian  invasion. 


2l6 


THE   AGE   OF    PERICLES 


in  their  ruins  still  excite  the  admiration  of  the  world.  Among 
the  various  edifices  constructed  at  this  time  was  the  Odeon  or 
"  Music  Hall,"  erected  just  beneath  the  Acropohs.  This  building 
was  intended  for  the  musical  contests  that  were  held  in  connection 
with  the  Panathenaic  festivals  (sec.  i86). 

But  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  Periclean  structures  were 
grouped  upon  the  Acropohs.  Here,  as  the  gateway  to  the  sacred 
inclosure  of  the  citadel,  were  erected  the  magnificent  Propylaea, 
which  have  served  as  a  model  for  similar  structures  since  the 
time  of  Pericles.  Here  also  was  raised  the  beautiful  Parthenon, 
sacred  to  the  virgin  goddess  Athena.  The  architects  of  this  build- 
ing were  Ictmus 
and  Callicrates; 
the  celebrated 
sculptures  of  the 
frieze  were  de- 
signed by  Phidias. 
Within  was  the 
celebrated  ivory 
and  gold  statue 
of  the  goddess. 

The  So-called  Theseum  AT  Athens     ^^^^    ^he    temple 
(From  a  photograph)  Stood  the  colossal 

^, .  .  fxu   1,   ^  J   f /-     1  4.      1  bronze    statue    of 

This  IS  one  of  the  best  preserved  of  Greek  temples 

Athena,  —  made, 
it  is  said,  from  the  spoils  of  Marathon,  —  whose  ghttering  spear 
point  was  a  beacon  to  the  mariner  sailing  in  from  Sunium.^ 

The  Athenians  obtained  a  considerable  portion  of  the  money 
needed  for  the  prosecution  of  their  great  architectural  and  art 
undertakings  from  the  treasury  of  the  Delian  Confederacy.  The 
allies  naturally  declaimed  bitterly  against  this  proceeding,  com- 
plaining that  Athens  with  their  money  was  "  adorning  herself  as 
a  vain  woman  decks  her  body  with  gay  ornaments."  But  Pericles' 
answer   to   these   charges  was  that  the  money  was   contributed 

9  For  additional  details  concerning  the  art  matters  here  dealt  with,  see  sees.  313 
and  320. 


Fig.  88. 


THE  ATHENIAN   EMPIRE  217 

to  the  end  that  the  cities  of  the  league  should  be  protected 
against  the  Persians,  and  that  so  long  as  the  Athenians  kept 
the  enemy  at  a  distance  they  had  a  right  to  use  the  money  as 
they  pleased. 

231.  Strength  and  Weakness  of  the  Athenian  Empire. — Under 
Pericles  Athens  had  become  the  most  powerful  naval  state  in  the 
world.  In  one  of  his  last  speeches  (sec.  235),  made  soon  after 
the  outbreak  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  in  which  he  recounts  the 
resources  of  the  Athenian  Empire,  Pericles  says  to  his  fellow- 
citizens  :  "  There  is  not  now  a  king,  there  is  not  any  nation  in 
the  universal  world,  able  to  withstand  that  navy  which  at  this 
juncture  you  can  launch  out  to  sea." 

And  this  was  no  empty  boast.  The  earlier  empires  of  the 
Orient  that  once  had  held  wide  dominion  had  long  since  fallen, 
and  the  later  Medo-Persian  power  which  had  arisen  upon  their 
ruins,  and  which  at  the  opening  of  the  fifth  century  b.c.  was 
threatening  to  extend  its  authority  over  the  world,  had  been 
checked  in  its  insolent  advance  by  Hellenic  valor  and  discipHne, 
so  that  at  this  time  there  was  no  power  in  the  East  that  the 
Athenians  need  fear.  In  the  West,  Rome  had  not  yet  risen  into 
prominence,  and  Carthage  was  barely  able  to  contend  upon  equal 
terms  with  the  Greek  cities  of  Sicily. 

Beyond  question  the  Hellenes  were  at  this  moment  the  leading 
race  in  the  world ;  and  Athens,  notwithstanding  the  limitations 
placed  upon  her  ambition  by  the  terms  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
Truce  (sec.  225),  was  the  real  head  of  Hellas.  The  ^gean  had 
become  an  Athenian  lake.  Its  islands  and  coast  lands,  together 
with  the  Hellespontine  region,  formed  practically  an  Athenian 
Empire.  The  revenue  ships  of  Athens  collected  tribute  from  two 
hundred  Greek  cities.  It  seemed  almost  as  though  the  union  of 
the  cities  of  Hellas  was  to  be  effected  on  an  imperial  basis  through 
the  energy  and  achievements  of  the  Athenians. 

But  the  most  significant  feature  of  this  new  imperial  power  was 
the  remarkable  combination  of  material  and  intellectual  resources 
which  it  exhibited.  Never  before  had  there  been  such  a  union 
of  the  material  and  the  intellectual  elements  of  civilization  at  the 


2i8  THE   AGE   OF    PERICLES 

seat  of  empire.^'^  Literature  and  art  had  been  carried  to  the 
utmost  perfection  possible  to  human  genius.  Art  wa^  represented 
by  the  inimitable  creations  of  Phidias  and  Polygnotus,  while  the 
drama  was  illustrated  by  the  incomparable  tragedies  of  ^schylus, 
Sophocles,  and  Euripides.^^ 

But  there  were  elements  of  weakness  in  the  splendid  imperial 
structure.  The  Athenian  Empire  was  destined  to  be  short-lived 
because  the  principles  upon  which  it  rested  were  in  opposition 
to  the  deepest  instinct  of  the  Greek  race,  —  to  that  sentiment 
of  local  patriotism  which  invested  each  individual  city  with  polit- 
ical sovereignty  (sec.  137).  Athens  had  disregarded  this  feeling. 
Pericles  himself  acknowledged  that  in  the  hands  of  the  Athenians 
sovereignty  had  run  into  a  sort  of  tyranny.  The  so-called  con- 
federates were  the  subjects  of  Athens.  To  her  they  paid  tribute. 
To  her  courts  they  were  dragged  for  trial.^^  Naturally  the  subject 
cities  of  her  empire  —  that  is,  the  patriotic  or  home  rule  party  in 
these  dependent  states  —  regarded  Athens  as  the  destroyer  of 
Hellenic  liberties,  and  watched  impatiently  for  the  first  favorable 
moment  to  revolt  and  throw  off  the  yoke  that  she  had  imposed 
upon  them.  Hence  the  Athenian  Empire  rested  upon  a  foun- 
dation of  sand. 

Had  Athens,  instead  of  enslaving  her  confederates  of  the  Delian 
League,  only  been  able  to  find  some  way  of  retaining  them  as 
alUes  in  an  equal  union,  —  a  great  and  perhaps  impossible  task 
under  the  then  existing  conditions  of  the  Hellenic  world,  —  as 

10  «  The  average  ability  of  the  Athenian  race  [was],  on  the  lowest  possible  esti- 
mate, very  nearly  two  grades  higher  than  our  own ;  that  is,  about  as  much  as  our 
race  is  above  that  of  the  African  negro.  This  estimate,  which  may  seem  prodigious 
to  some,  is  confirmed  by  the  quick  intelligence  and  high  culture  of  the  Athenian 
commonalty,  before  whom  literary  works  were  recited,  and  works  of  art  exhibited 
of  a  far  more  severe  character  than  could  possibly  be  appreciated  by  the  average  of 
our  race,  the  calibre  of  whose  intellect  is  easily  gauged  by  a  glance  at  the  contents  of 
a  railway  bookstall."  — Galton,  Hereditary  Genius,  p.  342  (2d  Am.  ed.,  1887); 
quoted  by  Kidd,  Social  Evolution,  ch.  ix. 

11  For  short  notices  of  the  lives  and  works  of  these  artists  and  poets,  see  sees.  320, 
325,  and  337. 

12  The  subject  cities  were  allowed  to  maintain  only  their  lower  courts  of  justice ; 
all  cases  of  importance,  as  we  have  seen  (sec.  229),  were  carried  to  Athens,  and  there 
decided  in  the  Attic  tribunals. 


THE  ATHENIAN   EMPIRE  219 

head  of  the  federated  Greek  race  she  might  have  secured  for 
Hellas  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  history  of 
Rome  might  have  ended  with  the  first  century  of  the  republic. 

Furthermore,  there  were  elements  of  weakness  within  the  Athe- 
nian democracy  itself.  Greatly  as  Pericles  had  exalted  Athens, 
and  vastly  as  he  had  extended  her  reputation,  still  by  some  of 
his  measures  he  had  sown  the  seeds  of  future  evils.  In  his  system 
of  wholesale  public  doles  and  gratuities  he  had  introduced  or 
encouraged  pracFices  that  had  the  same  demorahzing  effects  upon 
the  Athenians  that  the  free  distribution  of  corn  at  Rome  at  a 
later  time  had  upon  the  Roman  populace.  These  pernicious  prac- 
tices cast  discredit  upon  labor,  destroyed  frugality,  and  fostered 
idleness,  thus  sapping  the  virtues  and  strength  of  the  Athenian 
democracy. 

Illustrations  of  these  weaknesses,  as  well  as  of  the  strength  of  the 
Athenian  Empire,  will  be  afforded  by  the  great  struggle  between 
Athens  and  Sparta  known  as  the  Peloponnesian  War,  the  causes 
and  chief  incidents  of  which  we  shall  next  rehearse. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Pericles.  Thucyd- 
IDES,  ii.  65 ;  on  the  character  of  Pericles. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  ii,  pp.  460-641.  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vol.  iv,  pp.  438-533.  Abbott,  vol.  iii,  chaps,  i  and  ii. 
Holm,  vol.  ii,  chaps,  xv-xx.  Bury,  History  of  Greece,  chap.  ix.  Cox, 
The  Athenian  Empire  ;  and  Lives  of  Greek  Statesmen,  "  Ephialtes  "  and 
"  Perikles."  Lloyd,  The  Age  of  Pericles,  vol.  ii,  chaps.  xH  and  xlii. 
Butler,  The  Story  of  Athens,  chap.  vii.  Abbott,  Pericles  and  the  Golden 
Age  of  Athens,  chaps,  x-xviii.  Grant,  Greece  in  the  Age  of  Pericles^ 
chaps,  vii,  viii,  and  xii.     Mahaffy,  Survey  of  Greek  Civilization,  chap.  v. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  — i.  The  buildings  of  Athens.  2.  The 
drama  in  the  Periclean  Age.  3.  "A  Day  in  Athens."  4.  The  popular 
courts.     5.  The  imperialism  of  Pericles. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 

(431-404  B.C.) 

I.  The  War  to  the  Peace  of  Nicias  (431-421  b.c.) 

232.  The  Immediate  Causes  of  the  War.  —  Before  the  end  of 
the  hfe  of  Pericles  the  growing  jealousy  between  Ionian  Athens 
and  Dorian  Sparta  and  her  allies  broke  out  in  the  long  and 
calamitous  struggle  known  as  the  Peloponnesian  War.  Pericles 
had  foreseen  the  coming  storm  :  "  I  descry  war,"  he  said,  "  lower- 
ing from  the  Peloponnesus." 

One  immediate  cause  of  the  war  was  the  interference  of  Athens, 
on  the  side  of  the  Corcyraeans,  in  a  quarrel  between  them  and 
their  mother  city  Corinth.  The  real  root  of  this  trouble  between 
Corinth  and  Corcyra  was  mercantile  rivalry.  Both  were  enter- 
prising commercial  cities,  and  both  wished  to  control  the  trade 
of  the  islands  and  the  coast  towns  of  Western  Greece.  The 
motive  of  the  Athenians  for  interesting  themselves  in  this  quarrel 
between  mother  and  daughter  was  to  prevent  any  accession  to  the 
naval  power  of  Corinth  by  her  possible  acquisition  of  the  fleet  of 
the  Corcyraeans,  and  to  make  sure  of  Corcyra  as  an  important 
station  and  watch  post  on  the  route  to  Italy. 

The  second  immediate  cause  of  the  war  was  the  blockade  by 
the  Athenians  of  Potidaea,  in  Chalcidice.  This  was  a  Corinthian 
colony,  but  it  was  a  member  of  the  Delian  League,  and  was  now 
being  chastised  by  Athens  for  attempted  secession.  Corinth,  as 
the  ever-jealous  naval  rival  of  Athens,  had  endeavored  to  lend 
aid  to  her  daughter,  but  had  been  worsted  in  an  engagement 
with  the  Athenians. 

With  affairs  in  this  shape,  Corinth,  seconded  by  other  states 
that  had  causes  of  complaint  against  Athens,  appealed  to  Sparta, 


THE   AFFAIR  AT   PLAT^A  221 

as  the  head  of  the  Dorian  alliance,  for  aid  and  justice.  The 
Spartans,  after  listening  to  the  deputies  of  both  sides,  decided 
that  the  Athenians  had  been  guilty  of  injustice,  and  declared  for 
war.  The  resolution  of  the  Spartans  was  indorsed  by  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  confederation,  and  apparently  approved  by  the  Delphian 
oracle,  which,  in  response  to  an  inquiry  of  the  Spartans  as  to  what 
would  be  the  issue  of  the  proposed  undertaking,  assured  them  that 
''  they  would  gain  the  victory,  if  they  fought  with  all  their  might." 

233.  The  Beginning :  Attack  upon  Plataea  by  the  Thebans.  — 
The  first  act  in  the  long  and  terrible  drama  was  enacted  at  night, 
within  the  walls  of  Plataea.  This  city,  though  in  Boeotia,  was  under 
the  protection  of  Athens,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Boeotian  League.  Anxious  to  get  possession  of  this  place  before 
the  actual  outbreak  of  the  war  which  they  saw  to  be  inevitable, 
the  Thebans  planned  its  surprise  and  capture.  Three  hundred 
Thebans  gained  access  to  the  unguarded  city  in  the  dead  of  night, 
and,  marching  to  the  public  square,  summoned  the  Plataeans  to 
exchange  the  Athenian  for  a  Boeotian  alliance. 

The  Plataeans  were  upon  the  point  of  acceding  to  all  the  de- 
mands made  upon  them,  when,  discovering  the  small  number  of 
the  enemy,  they  attacked  and  overpowered  them  in  the  darkness, 
and  took  one  hundred  and  eighty  of  them  prisoners.  These  cap- 
tives they  afterwards  put  to  death,  in  violation,  as  the  Thebans 
maintained,  of  a  sacred  promise  that  their  lives  should  be  spared. 

This  wretched  affair  at  Plataea  precipitated  the  war  (431  B.C.). 
The  preparations  on  either  side  were  now  pushed  forward  with 
increased  zeal  and  energy.  There  was  great  enthusiasm,  Thu- 
cydides  tells  us,  on  both  sides  of  the  Isthmus,  particularly  among 
the  young  men,  who,  having  never  seen  war,  were  eager  for  its 
new  experiences  and  excitements. 

234.  The  Peloponnesians  invade  and  ravage  Attica  (431  B.C.).  — 
As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  affair  at  Platcea  had  reached  Sparta, 
all  her  allies  were  at  once  summoned  to  send  their  contingents 
in  haste  to  the  Isthmus,  prepared  for  a  campaign  in  Attica.  A 
great  army  was  soon  collected  there  under  the  command  of  the 
Spartan  king  Archidamus. 


222  THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

Meanwhile  Pericles,  carrying  out  the  general  plan  of  campaign 
that  had  been  resolved  upon  by  the  Athenians  under  his  advice, 
had  gathered  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages,  towns,  and  scat- 
tered farmhouses  of  Attica  within  the  walls  of  the  capital.  The 
people  brought  with  them  their  household  goods,  even  ''  the 
woodwork  of  their  homes."  Their  cattle  they  transported  to 
Euboea  and  other  places  of  safety.  Everything  that  could  not 
be  carried  away  was  abandoned  to  the  enemy. 

Into  the  plain  thus  deserted,  as  it  had  been  a  generation 
before  at  the  time  of  the  Persian  invasion,  the  Peloponnesians 
marched,  just  at  the  season  when  the  grain  was  ripening,  and  as 
they  advanced  towards  Athens  ravaged  the  country  far  and  near. 
Even  the  barbarians  had  not  wasted  it  more  ruthlessly.  From 
the  walls  of  the  city  the  Athenians  could  see  the  flames  of  their 
burning  houses,  which  recalled  to  the  old  men  the  sight  they 
had  witnessed  from  the  island  of  Salamis  just  forty-nine  years 
before.  This  destruction  of  their  property  before  their  very  eyes 
naturally  frenzied  the  people,  and  they  began  to  upbraid  Pericles, 
and  demanded  that  he  should  give  up  his  cowardly  policy  of 
crouching  behind  walls,  and  lead  the  army  out  to  meet  the 
enemy  in  open  battle. 

Perceiving  that  the  people  were  beside  themselves  with  anger, 
Pericles  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  all  their  abuse,  and  refused  to  com- 
ply with  their  demands,  but  sent  out  bodies  of  cavalry  to  protect 
the  property  near  the  city  walls. 

The  failure  of  provisions  finally  compelled  the  Peloponnesians 
to  withdraw  from  the  country.  They  retreated  through  Boeotia, 
and  from  the  Isthmus  the  contingents  of  the  different  cities 
scattered  to  their  homes. 

235.  Funeral  Oration  of  Pericles.  —  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
Athenians  to  bury  with  public  and  imposing  ceremonies  the  bodies 
of  those  who  fell  in  battle.  In  the  funeral  procession  the  bones 
of  the  dead  of  each  tribe  were  borne  in  a  single  chest  on  a 
litter,  while  an  empty  litter  covered  with  a  pall  was  carried  for 
those  whose  bodies  had  not  been  recovered.  The  remains  were 
laid  in  the  public  cemetery,  outside  the  city  gates.     The  only 


FUNERAL  ORATION    OF   PERICLES  223 

time  that  the  Athenians  departed  from  this  custom  was  after  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  when  the  dead  were  buried  on  the  field  where 
they  had  fallen,  as  a  special  tribute  to  their  valor  and  self-devotion 
(sec.  202).  After  the  burial  of  the  remains,  some  person  chosen 
by  his  fellow-citizens  on  account  of  his  special  fitness  for  the  ser- 
vice delivered  an  oration  over  the  dead,  extolling  their  deeds  and 
exhorting  the  living  to  an  imitation  of  their  virtues. 

It  was  during  the  winter  following  the  campaign  we  have 
described  that  the  Athenians  celebrated  the  funeral  ceremonies 
of  those  who  had  fallen  thus  far  in  the  war.  Pericles  was  chosen 
to  give  the  oration  on  this  occasion.  This  funeral  speech,  as 
reported  by  Thucydides,^  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  memorials 
preserved  to  us  from  antiquity.  All  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  oration  was  pronounced  lent  to  it  a  peculiar  and 
pathetic  interest. 

The  speaker  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to  describe  the 
institutions  to  which  Athens  owed  her  greatness,  and  to  picture 
the  glories  of  the  imperial  city  for  which  the  heroes  they  lamented 
had  died.  He  first  spoke  of  the  fathers  from  whom  they  had 
inherited  their  institutions  of  freedom,  and  their  great  empire, 
and  then  passed  on  to  speak  of  the  character  and  spirit  of  those 
institutions  through  which  Athens  had  risen  to  power  and  great- 
ness. The  Athenian  government,  he  said,  was  a  democracy;  for 
all  the  citizens,  rich  and  poor  alike,  participated  in  its  adminis- 
tration. There  was  freedom  of  intercourse  and  of  action  among 
the  citizens,  each  doing  as  he  liked ;  and  yet  there  was  a  spirit  of 
reverence  and  respect  for  law.  Numerous  festivals  and  games 
furnished  amusement  and  relaxation  from  toil  for  all  citizens. 
Life  in  the  great  city  was  more  enjoyable  than  elsewhere,  being 
enriched  by  fruits  and  goods  from  all  the  world. 

1  Respecting  the  speeches  which  Thucydides  introduces  so  frequently  in  his 
narrative,  he  himself  says :  "As  to  the  speeches  which  were  made  either  before  or 
during  the  war,  it  was  hard  for  me,  and  for  others  who  reported  them  to  me,  to 
recollect  the  exact  words.  I  have  therefore  put  into  the  mouth  of  each  speaker  the 
sentiments  proper  to  the  occasion,  expressed  as  I  thought  he  would  be  likely  to 
express  them,  while  at  the  same  time  I  endeavored,  as  nearly  as  I  could,  to  give  the 
general  purport  of  what  was  actually  said"  (Jowett's  Thucydides,  i.  15). 


224 


THE   PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 


The  speaker  praised,  too,  Athens'  military  system,  in  which  the 
citizen  was  not  sacrificed  to  the  soldier,  as  at  Sparta;  and  yet 
Athens  was  alone  a  match  for  Sparta  and  all  her  allies.  He 
extolled  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  social  virtues  of  the  Athe- 
nians, which  were  fostered  by  their  free  institutions,  and  declared 
their  city  to  be  ''  the  school  of  Hellas  "  and  the  model  for  all 
other  cities. 

Continuing,  the  speaker  declared  that  Athens  alone  of  all 
existing  cities  was  greater  than  the  report  of  her  in  the  world ; 
and  that  she  would  never  need  a  Homer  to  perpetuate  her  mem- 
ory, because  she  herself  had  set  up  everywhere  eternal  monuments 
of  her  greatness.  "Such  is  the  city,"  he  exclaimed  impressively, 
"  for  whose  sake  these  men  nobly  fought  and  died ;  they  could 
not  bear  the  thought  that  she  might  be  taken  from  them ;  and 
every  one  of  us  who  survive  should  gladly  toil  on  her  behalf." 

Then  followed  words  of  tribute  to  the  valor  and  self-devotion 
of  the  dead,  whose  sepulchers  and  inscriptions  were  not  the  graves 
and  the  memorial  stones  of  the  cemetery  —  "  for  the  whole  earth 
is  the  sepulcher  of  famous  men,"  and  the  memorials  of  them  are 
"graven  not  on  stone  but  in  the  hearts  of  mankind."  Finally, 
with  words  of  comfort  for  the  relatives  of  the  dead,  the  orator 
dismissed  the  assembly  to  their  homes.^ 

"Thus  did  Pericles  represent  to  the  Athenian  citizens  the 
nature  of  their  state,  and  picture  to  them  what  Athens  should  be. 
Their  better  selves  he  held  before  them,  in  order  to  strengthen 
them  and  to  lift  them  above  themselves,  and  to  inspire  in  them 
self-devotion   and   constancy  and   bravery.     With  new  courage 

2  Thucydides,  ii.  35-46,  for  the  whole  oration. 

3  A  bas-relief  recently  excavated  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens.  Dr.  Charles 
Waldstein  thinks  that  this  sculpture  may  "  have  headed  an  inscription  containing 
the  names  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  battle,  which  record  was  placed  in  some 
public  spot  in  Athens  or  on  the  Acropohs.  Our  Athene-Nike  would  then  be  stand- 
ing in  the  attitude  of  mourning,  with  reversed  spear,  gazing  down  upon  the  tomb- 
stone which  surmounts  the  grave  of  her  brave  sons."  As  to  the  possible  connection 
of  this  relief  with  the  funeral  oration  of  Pericles,  Dr.  Waldstein  says :  "  Though  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  inscription  which  it  surmounted  referred  immediately 
to  those  who  had  fallen  in  the  campaign  of  431  B.C.,  I  still  feel  that  the  most  perfect 
counterpart  in  literature  is  the  famous  funeral  oration  of  Pericles  as  recorded  by 
Thucydides." 


Plate  IX.  —  The  Mourning  Athena.^    (From  a  photograph) 


THE  PLAGUE  AT  ATHENS  225 

turned  they  from  the  graves  of  the  fallen  to  their  homes,  and 
went  forward  to  meet  whatever  destiny  the  gods  might  have 
ordained"  (Curtius). 

That  funeral  day  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  great  days  in  ancient 
Athens. 

236.  The  Plague  at  Athens  (430  b.c.)  ;  the  Death  of  Pericles 
(429  B.C.).  —  Very  soon  had  the  Athenians  need  to  exercise  all 
those  virtues  which  the  orator  had  admonished  them  to  cherish ; 
for  upon  the  return  of  the  next  campaigning  season  the  Pelopon- 
nesians,  having  mustered  again  two  thirds  of  all  their  fighting 
forces,  broke  once  more  into  Attica  and  ravaged  the  land  anew, 
giving  to  the  flames  such  villages  and  farmhouses  as  had  escaped 
destruction  the  previous  year.  The  Athenians,  adhering  to  their 
policy  of  avoiding  a  battle  in  the  open  field,  remained  behind 
their  walls,  enduring  as  best  they  might  the  sight  of  the  smoke 
of  their  burning  homes  drifting  over  the  plain. 

The  walls  of  Athens  were  unassailable  by  the  hostile  army ;  but 
unfortunately  they  were  no  defense  against  a  more  terrible  foe. 
A  pestilence  broke  out  in  the  crowded  city  and  added  its  horrors 
to  the  already  unbearable  calamities  of  war.  The  mortality  was 
frightful.    One  fourth  of  the  population  of  the  city  was  swept  away. 

In  the  third  year  of  the  war  the  plague  reappeared  at  Athens. 
Pericles,  who  had  been  the  very  soul  and  life  of  Athens  during 
all  these  dark  days,  fell  a  victim  to  the  disease.  The  plague  had 
pre\dously  robbed  him  of  his  sister  and  his  two  sons.  The  death 
of  his  younger  son  had  bowed  him  in  grief,  and  as  he  laid  the 
usual  funeral  wreath  upon  the  head  of  the  dead  boy,  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  it  is  said,  he  gave  way  to  his  feelings  in  a 
passionate  outburst  of  tears.  In  dying,  the  great  statesman  is 
reported  to  have  said  that  he  regarded  his  best  title  to  honored 
remembrance  to  be  that  "he  had  never  caused  an  Athenian  to 
put  on  mourning." 

After  the  death  of  Pericles  the  leadership  of  affairs  at  Athens 
fell  to  a  great  degree  into  the  hands  of  demagogues.  The  mob 
element  got  control  of  the  Ecclesia,  so  that  hereafter  we  shall 
find  many  of  its  measures  marked  neither  by  virtue  nor  by  wisdom. 


226  THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

237.  The  Cruel  Character  of  the  War:  the  Athenians  wreak 
Vengeance  upon  the  Mytileneans,  and  the  Spartans  upon  the 
Plataeans.  —  On  both  sides  the  war  was  waged  with  the  utmost 
vindictiveness  and  cruelty.  As  a  rule,  all  the  men  captured  by 
either  side  were  killed. 

In  the  year  428  b.c.  the  city  of  Mytilene,  on  the  island  of 
Lesbos,  revolted  from  the  Athenians.  With  the  rebellion  sup- 
pressed, the  fate  of  the  Mytileneans  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Athenian  assembly.  Cleon,  a  rash  and  violent  leader  of  the 
democratic  party,  proposed  that  all  the  men  of  the  place,  six 
thousand  in  number,  should  be  slain,  and  the  women  and  chil- 
dren sold  as  slaves.  This  infamous  decree  was  passed,  and  a 
galley  dispatched  bearing  the  sentence  for  execution  to  the 
Athenian  general  at  Mytilene. 

By  the  next  morning,  however,  the  Athenians  had  repented  of 
their  hasty  resolution.  A  second  meeting  of  the  assembly  was 
hurriedly  called,  the  barbarous  vote  was  repealed,  and  a  swift  tri- 
reme, bearing  the  reprieve,  set  out  in  anxious  haste  to  overtake 
the  former  galley,  which  had  twenty-four  hours  the  start.  The 
trireme  reached  the  island  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  execution 
of  the  cruel  edict. 

The  second  resolution  of  the  Athenians,  though  more  discrimi- 
nating than  the  first  decree,  was  quite  severe  enough.  Over  one 
thousand  of  the  nobles  of  Mytilene  were  killed,  the  walls  of  the 
city  were  thrown  down,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  lands  of  the 
island  was  given  to  citizens  of  Athens.* 

Still  more  unrelenting  and  cruel  were  the  Spartans.  In  the 
summer  of  the  same  year  that  the  Athenians  wreaked  such 
vengeance  upon  the  Mytileneans,  the  Spartans  and  their  allies 
captured  the  city  of  Plataea,  put  to  death  all  the  men,  sold  the 
women  as  slaves,  and  turned  the  site  of  the  city  into  pasture  land. 

238.  The  Athenians  seize  Pylos  (425  b.c);  the  Surrender  of 
a  Spartan  Force ;  the  Significance  of  this.  —  Soon  after  the  affair 

4  These  settlers  were  cleruchs  (sec.  162,  n.  4).  They  did  not  cultivate  with  their 
own  hands  the  lands  received ;  these  were  tilled  by  the  native  Lesbians,  who  paid  the 
new  proprietors  a  fixed  rent. 


THE  ATHENIANS   SEIZE   PYLOS 


227 


at  Mytilene  and  the  destruction  of  Plataea,  an  enterprising  general 
of  the  Athenians,  named  Demosthenes,  seized  and  fortified  a 
point  of  land  (Pylos)  on  the  coast  of  Messenia.  The  Spartans 
made  every  effort  to  dislodge  the  enemy.  In  the  course  of  the 
siege  some  Lacedaemonians,  having  landed  upon  an  adjacent  little 
island  (Sphacteria),  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  cut  off  from  the 
mainland  by  the  sudden  arrival  of  an  Athenian  fleet.  After  hav- 
ing made  a  splendid  fight,  they  were  completely  surrounded  and 
hopelessly  outnumbered.  They  must 
now  either  surrender  or  die.  They 
decided  to  surrender.  Among  those 
giving  themselves  up  were  over  a  hun- 
dred Spartans,  some  of  whom  were 
members  of  the  best  families  at  Sparta. 
All  the  prisoners  were  carried  to  Athens. 

The  surrender  of  Spartan  soldiers 
had  hitherto  been  deemed  an  incred- 
ible' thing.  ''Nothing  which  happened 
during  the  war,"  declares  Thucydides, 
"caused  greater  amazement  in  Hellas  ; 
for  it  was  universally  imagined  that  the 
Lacedaemonians  would  never  give  up 
their  arms,  either  under  the  pressure  of  famine  or  in  any  other 
extremity,  but  would  fight  to  the  last  and  die  sword  in  hand." 

The  real  significance  of  the  affair  was  the  revelation  it  made  of 
thejelaxing  at  Sparta  of  that  tense  military  discipline  and  spirit 
which  had  given  the  Spartans  such  a  place  and  reputation  in  the 
Hellenic  world.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  In  passing 
from  Thermopylae  to  Pylos  we  cross  a  great  divide  in  Spartan 
history. 

The  prisoners  were  held  at  Athens  as  hostages  for  the  security 
of  Attica  in  the  future,  the  Spartans  being  informed  that  if  they 
made  another  invasion  of  the  country  all  the  captives  would  be 
put  to  death.  Pylos  was  garrisoned  with  Athenian  and  Messe- 
nian  troops,  and  as  a  harboring  place  for  runaway  Helots  became 
a  thorn  in  Sparta's  side. 


228  THE   PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 

239.  The  Spartan  Brasidas  suggests  a  New  Plan  of  Campaign 
against  Athens.  —  Seven  years  of  the  war  had  now  passed  since 
the  first  blow  was  struck,  and  so  far  from  Sparta's  promise  to 
emancipate  the  cities  enslaved  by  Athens  having  been  fulfilled, 
Laconia  itself  was  being  held  in  close  siege,  with  more  than  a 
hundred  Spartans  in  captivity  at  Athens. 

From  this  humiliating  condition  Sparta  was  rescued  by  the 
abiUty  and  energy  of  her  general  Brasidas.  Brasidas  saw  clearly 
that  Athens  could  be  reached  only  through  her  allies  and  colo- 
nies. He  proposed  to  the  Spartans  that  they  should  stir  to 
revolt  some  group  of  the  tributary  cities  of  Athens,  and  then, 
working  from  this  center  of  defection,  spread  the  revolt  as 
widely  as  possible. 

For  the  initiation  of  his  policy,  Brasidas  suggested  the  Thracian 
shore,  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  possessions  of  Athens ; 
for  from  the  prosperous  tribute-paying  cities  here  Athens  drew 
large  revenues,  while  the  forests  that  covered  the  mountains  sup- 
plied in  great  abundance  timber  for  the  building  of  her  ships. 

The  plan  was  adopted,  and  with  a  little  army  of  Helots  and 
mercenaries  picked  up  in  different  parts  of  the  Peloponnesus, 
Brasidas  set  out  on  his  adventurous  undertaking,  which  was  not 
altogether  unlike  Hannibal's  in  the  great  fight  between  Carthage 
and  Rome.  He  traversed  Baotia,  marched  on  through  Thes- 
saly,  and  soon  was  among  the  cities  of  Chalcidice,  tributary  to 
Athens,  and  offering  himself  to  them  as  a  liberator.  Several  of 
the  towns  opened  their  gates  to  him,  —  and  that  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  of  the  sea  empire  of  Athens. 

The  Athenians  were  thoroughly  alarmed.  They  sent  to  the 
Thracian  shore  several  armaments,  one  of  which  was  led  by  the 
notorious  Cleon,  to  hold  what  they  still  possessed  there  and 
to  win  back  what  they  had  lost.  In  what  is  known  as  the 
battle  of  Amphipolis  (422  B.C.)  the  Athenians  and  their  allies 
suffered  a  severe  defeat.  Cleon  was  killed  and  Brasidas  was 
mortally  wounded. 

240.  The  Peace  of  Nicias  (421  b.c).  —  Both  sides  were  now 
weary  of  the  war.     Negotiations  for  peace  were  opened,  which, 


ARGOS    STRIVES    FOR   SUPREMACY 


229 


after  many  embassies  back  and  forth,  resulted  in  what  is  known 
as  the  Peace  of  Nicias,  because  of  the  prominent  part  that  Athe- 
nian general  had  in  bringing  it  about.  The  treaty  provided  for  a 
truce  of  fifty  years.  The  essential  condition  was  that  each  party 
should  give  up  to  the  other  all  prisoners  and  captured  places. 

II.    From  the  Peace  of  Nicias  to  the  Defeat  of 

THE  Sicilian  Expedition  (421-413  b.c.) 

241.  Argos  endeavors  to  regain   her  Lost   Supremacy. — The 

key  to  the  history  of  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  the  period 
between  the  Peace  of  Nicias  and  the  setting  out  of  the  great 
Athenian  expedition  to  Sicily  is  found  in  the  dissatisfaction  of 
the  allies  of  Sparta  with  the  provisions  of  that  treaty,  and  the 
taking  advantage  of  this  situation  by  Argos  to  regain  her  ancient 
ascendancy  in  the  Peloponnesus  (sec.  151). 

Chief  among  the  dissatisfied  Spartan  confederates  were  the 
Corinthians.  They  were  angry  because  certain  places  had  not 
been  given  back  to  them,  and  accused  Sparta  of  having  sacrificed 
her  allies  to  the  advancement  of  her  own  interests.  It  was  they 
who  had  stirred  up  the  hostilities  at  the  beginning,  and  it  was 
they  who  now  fanned  the  embers  of  the  war  into  a  raging  flame 
again.  They  went  to  Argos  and  persuaded  the  Argives  that  it 
was  an  opportune  time  for  them,  by  placing  themselves  at  the 
head  of  a  league  of  all  the  Hellenic  cities  opposed  either  to 
Sparta  or  to  Athens,  to  regain  their  old  place  of  leadership. 

Circumstances  did  indeed  seem  to  favor  such  an  undertaking. 
Sparta's  military  reputation  had  received  a  severe  blow  by  the 
affair  at  Pylos  as  well  as  by  her  entire  conduct  of  the  war. 
Moreover,  Argos  had  taken  no  part  in  the  wasting  war  of  the 
last  ten  years,  but  had  all  this  while  been  steadily  developing 
her  resources.  Therefore  the  Argives  were  quite  ready  to  embark 
in  the  ambitious  project  proposed  by  the  Corinthians. 

The  commissioners  whom  the  Argives  sent  among  the  cities 
ill-disposed  to  Sparta  to  propose  to  them  an  alliance  with  Argos 
met  with  a  friendly  reception.     Mantinea,  in  Arcadia,  and  other 


230  THE    PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 

cities    seceded    from    the    old  Peloponnesian    Confederacy   and 
joined  the  new  league.     Athens  also  became  a  member  of  it. 

242.  The  Battle  of  Mantinea  (418  B.C.)  reestablishes  Sparta's 
Leadership  in  the  Peloponnesus.  —  It  now  began  to  look  as 
though  leadership  in  the  Peloponnesus  was  about  to  be  trans- 
ferred from  Sparta  to  Argos,  from  the  city  of  Menelaus  to  the 
land  of  Agamemnon.  But  a  single  battle  put  an  entirely  differ- 
ent look  upon  affairs.  The  Spartans  met  the  Argives  and  their 
alHes  near  Mantinea  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  decisive  defeat. 

The  battle  of  Mantinea  was  one  of  the  most  important  which 
had  thus  far  marked  the  war.  It  ruined  forever  the  hopes  of 
Argos  of  regaining  her  ancient  leadership  in  the  Peloponnesus. 
It  restored  to  Sparta  that  ascendancy  which  recent  circumstances 
had  so  nearly  destroyed.  It  wiped  out  the  disgrace  of  Sphac- 
teria,  and  did  much  to  reestablish  the  greatly  impaired  military 
reputation  of  the  Spartans. 

243.  The  Fall  of  Melos  (416  b.c). — The  next  matter  of  note 
in  the  period  whose  history  we  are  outlining  was  an  act  of  piracy 
—  to  use  plain  words  —  on  the  part  of  the  Athenians. 

The  pleasant  island  of  Melos,  which  is  one  of  the  westerly 
lying  of  the  Cyclades,  was  the  only  island  in  the  ^gean,  with 
the  exception  of  Thera,  that  was  not  at  this  time  included  in 
the  Athenian  Empire.  The  Melians  were  Dorians  and  regarded 
Sparta  as  their  mother  city. 

The  Athenians  determined  to  take  possession  of  this  island, 
being  moved  thereto  by  several  motives.  They  wished  to  round 
out  their  dominions  and  secure,  a  ''scientific  frontier"  for  their 
sea  possessions  in  that  part  of  the  ^gean. 

Furthermore,  the  independence  of  the  Melians  made  the  other 
islanders  subject  to  Athens  discontented  and  restless ;  they  could 
not  see  why  they  should  pay  tribute  to  Athens  while  the  Melians 
went  free.  Hence  for  this  reason  also  the  Athenians  resolved 
to  reduce  the  island  to  the  same  condition  as  the  others. 

Added  to  these  motives  was  a  desire  for  more  lands,  like  the 
Lesbian  fields  (sec.  237,  n.  4),  for  distribution  among  Athenian 
citizens,  and,  perhaps  what  weighed  more  than  all  else,  a  thirst  to 


ALCIBIADES  231 

revenge  upon  some  Dorian  people  the  wiping  out  by  the  Spartans 
of  the  Plataean  state. 

So  the  Athenians  in  the  summer  of  416  B.C.  sent  an  expedition 
to  the  island  and  commanded  the  Melians  to  at  once  acknowl- 
edge the  suzerainty  of  Athens.  The  demand,  if  we  may  here  trust 
Thucydides'  account,  was  based  on  no  other  ground  than  Athens' 
imperial  interests  and  the  right  of  the  strong  to  rule  the  weak. 

The  Melians,  relying  on  the  righteousness  of  their  cause  and 
the  help  of  their  Lacedaemonian  kinsmen,  refused,  at  the  bidding 
of  Athens,  to  surrender  their  independence,  which  according  to 
their  traditions  they  had  enjoyed  for  seven  centuries. 

So  the  city  of  Melos  was  blockaded  by  sea  and  beset  by  land, 
and  in  a  few  months,  neither  the  gods  nor  the  Lacedaemonians 
bringing  help,  the  whole  island  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Athenians. 
All  the  men  were  at  once  put  to  death,  and  the  women  and 
children  sold  into  slavery.  The  island  was  then  repopulated  by 
settlers  sent  out  from  Athens. 

The  Athenians  had  now  rounded  out  their  dominions  in  the 
T^gean,  and  Platsea  was  avenged.  But  the  Hellenic  world  never 
forgave    the    Athenians    for    the  ^^^^^^ 

crime,  which  was  one  of  the  worst, 
because  so  unprovoked  and  so 
deliberately  planned,  committed 
by  either  party  during  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War. 

244.  Alcibiades.  —  It  becomes 

necessary  for  us  here  to  introduce 

a    new    leader    of    the    Athenian 

demos,  Alcibiades,  who  played  a 

most  conspicuous   part,  not  only 

in  Athenian  but  also  in  Hellenic 

affairs,  from  this  time  on  to  near  ^  ~  "^ 

^      ,       ^  ,  .  Fig.  89.  —  Alcibiades 

the    close    of    the    Peloponnesian 

War.  Alcibiades  was  a  young  man  of  noble  lineage  and  of  aris- 
tocratic associations.  He  was  versatile,  brilliant,  and  resource- 
ful, but  unscrupulous,  reckless,  and  profligate.     He  was  a  pupil 


232  THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

of  Socrates,  but  he  failed  to  follow  the  counsels  of  his  teacher. 
His  astonishing  escapades  kept  all  Athens  talking,  yet  seemed 
only  to  attach  the  people  more  closely  to  him,  for  he  possessed 
all  those  personal  traits  which  make  men  popular  idols.  His 
influence  over  the  democracy  was  unlimited.  By  the  unscrupu- 
lous employment  of  the  various  arts  known  to  the  successful 
demagogue  he  was  able  to  carry  through  the  Ecclesia  almost 
any  measure  that  it  pleased  him  to  advocate. 

The  more  prudent  of  the  Athenians  were  filled  with  apprehen- 
sion for  the  future  of  the  state  under  such  guidance.  The  noted 
misanthrope  Timon  gave  expression  to  this  feeling  when,  after 
Alcibiades  had  secured  the  assent  of  the  popular  assembly  to  one 
of  his  impolitic  measures,  he  said  to  him  :  "  Go  on,  my  brave 
boy,  and  prosper;  for  your  prosperity  will  bring  on  the  ruin  of 
all  this  crowd."     And  it  did,  as  we  shall  see. 

245.  Debate  in  the  Athenian  Assembly  in  regard  to  sending  an 
Expedition  to  Sicily.  —  Very  soon  after  their  seizure  of  Melos  the 
Athenians  embarked  in  an  undertaking  that  was  freighted  with 
the  most  momentous  consequences  not  only  to  themselves  but  to 
the  whole  Hellenic  world.     This  was  an  expedition  to  Sicily. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  their  sending  out  this  expedition 
was  an  appeal  for  help  from  the  city  of  Egesta  against  the  Dorian 
city  of  Selinus.  These  places  were  situated  on  the  western  coast 
of  Sicily,  and  were  engaged  in  a  quarrel  over  some  border  land 
and  some  other  tri\ial  matters.  Syracuse  was  giving  aid  to  the 
people  of  Sehnus,  and  the  Egestaeans,  being  hard  pressed,  had 
sent  envoys  to  Athens  to  plead  for  assistance. 

The  Athenians  voted  to  send  to  Sicily  a  fleet  of  sixty  vessels, 
under  the  command  of  the  generals  Alcibiades,  Nicias,  and 
Lamachus.  The  resolution  to  engage  in  the  tremendous  enter- 
prise seems  to  have  been  taken  lightly  by  the  Athenians,  which 
was  quite  in  keeping  with  their  usual  way  of  doing  things ;  but  a 
few  days  after  their  first  vote,  a  second  meeting  of  the  Ecclesia 
having  been  called  for  the  purpose  of  making  arrangements 
for  the  equipment  of  the  armament,  Nicias,  who  was  opposed 
to  the  undertaking,  tried  to  persuade  the  people  to  reconsider 


A   DEBATE   IN   THE  ATHENIAN   ASSEMBLY      233 

their  original  vote  and  give  up  the  project.  This  opened  the 
flood  gates  of  a  regular  Athenian  debate. 

Nicias  stated  the  reasons  why  he  thought  the  proposed  expedi- 
tion should  be  abandoned.  His  first  point  was  that  the  situation 
at  home  —  with  the  cities  of  the  Thracian  shore  in  open  and 
unpunished  revolt,  and  with  other  subject  cities  watching  for  a 
favorable  moment  to  rebel  —  was  such  as  to  render  it  very  unwise 
for  them  to  send  so  far  away  a  large  part  of  their  fighting  force. 
The  Athenians  should  secure  well  their  present  empire  before 
attempting  to  conquer  a  new  one  in  the  Western  world. 

Nicias  also  reminded  the  Athenians  that  there  were  still  great 
unfilled  gaps  in  their  ranks  made  by  the  plague  and  by  a  war 
that  had  known  scarcely  any  real  intermission  during  sixteen 
years.     The  finances  of  the  state,  too,  needed  to  be  husbanded. 

The  speaker  then  proceeded  to  pay  his  attention  to  Alcibiades, 
who  was  the  real  instigator  of  the  whole  movement.  He  appealed 
to  the  citizens  of  experience  and  mature  judgment  not  to  allow 
grave  public  affairs  to  be  thus  toyed  with  by  this  harebrained 
youth,  and  those  like  him,  with  whom  he  had  filled  the  benches 
of  the  assembly.  He  appealed  to  them,  by  a  fearless  holding 
up  of  their  hands,  to  avert  from  Athens  the  greatest  danger  that 
had  ever  threatened  the  city.^ 

This  speech  of  Nicias  summarizes  the  arguments  that  should 
have  weighed  with  the  Athenians  in  deterring  them  from  em- 
barking in  the  hazardous  undertaking  that  they  had  in  mind. 
But  from  the  speeches  that  followed,  and  their  reception  by  the 
assembly,  it  was  evident  that  the  veteran  general  had  not  carried 
his  audience  with  him.  He  was  supported  by  a  few  speakers, 
but  the  most  opposed  his  conservative  policy. 

The  leader  of  the  war  party,  as  has  already  appeared,  was 
Alcibiades.  He  made  himself  the  mouthpiece  of  his  party,  and 
replied  to  Nicias  in  a  violent  and  demagogic  speech,  which  he 
closed  by  telling  the  Athenians  that  if  they  wished  to  rule, 
instead  of  being  ruled,  they  must  maintain  that  enterprising 
and  aggressive  policy  that  had  won  for  them  their  empire.     To 

5  Thucydides,  vi.  9-14,  for  the  entire  speech. 


234  THE   PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 

adopt  Nicias'  policy  of  inaction  and  indolent  repose  was  simply 
to  give  up  their  imperial  position.  Let  old  and  young  unite,  he 
said,  in  lifting  Athens  to  a  yet  greater  height  of  power  and  glory. 
With  Sicily  conquered,  the  Athenians  would  probably  become 
lords  of  the  whole  Hellenic  world. 

Alcibiades  evidently  had  the  ear  of  the  meeting.  Nicias  perceived 
this,  and  realizing  that  to  address  arguments  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  people  in  their  present  martial  mood  would  be  useless, 
changed  his  tactics,  and  in  a  second  speech  strove  to  frighten  them 
from  the  undertaking  by  dwelling  upon  the  size  and  expense  of  the 
armament  they  must  place  at  the  disposal  of  their  generals. 

This  speech  produced  just  the  opposite  effect  upon  the  meet- 
ing from  that  which  Nicias  had  hoped.  The  vastness  of  the 
enterprise,  the  magnificent  proportions  of  the  armament  needed, 
as  pictured  by  Nicias,  seemed  to  captivate  the  imagination  of 
the  Athenians,  and  they  were  more  eager  than  ever  to  embark 
in  the  undertaking.  The  expedition  further  presented  itself  to 
the  ardent  imagination  of  the  youth  as  a  sort  of  pleasure  and 
sight-seeing  excursion  among  the  wonders  of  the  land  of  the 
"  Far  West."  Those  who  had  no  mind  of  their  own  in  the  mat- 
ter or  who  were  opposed  to  the  undertaking  were  carried  away 
or  were  silenced  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  others ;  and  so  it 
came  about  that,  almost  without  a  dissenting  voice,  the  assembly 
voted  for  the  expedition. 

246.  The  Departure  of  the  Expedition  from  the  Piraeus 
(415  B.C.). — The  day  of  the  departure  of  the  Athenian  fleet 
from  the  Piraeus  was  one  of  the  great  days  in  ancient  Athens. 
It  was  yet  early  morning  when  the  soldiers  and  sailors  poured 
down  from  the  upper  city  into  the  harbor  town  and  began  to 
man  the  ships.  "The  entire  population  of  Athens,"  says  Thu- 
cydides,  who  must  have  been  an  eyewitness  of  the  stirring  scene 
which  he  describes,  "  accompanied  them,  citizens  and  strangers 
alike,  to  witness  an  enterprise  of  which  the  greatness  exceeded 
behef."  Prayers  having  been  offered  and  libations  made  to  the 
gods,  the  paean  was  raised  and  the  ships  put  out  to  sea.^ 

6  Thucydides,  vi.  32. 


THE   RECALL  OF   ALCIBIADES  235 

Anxiously  did  those  remaining  behind  watch  the  departing 
ships  until  they  were  lost  to  sight.  Could  the  anxious  watchers 
have  foreseen  the  fate  of  the  splendid  armament,  their  anxiety 
would  have  passed  into  despair :  * 'Athens  itself  was  sailing  out 
of  the  Piraeus,  never  to  return." 

247.  The  Recall  of  Alcibiades;  he  flees  to  Sparta  and  "plays 
the  traitor."  —  Scarcely  had  the  expedition  arrived  at  Sicily, 
before  Alcibiades,  who  was  one  of  the  generals  in  command  of 
the  armament,  was  summoned  back  to  Athens  to  answer  a  charge 
of  impiety."'  Fearing  to  trust  himself  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies 
at  Athens,  he  fled  to  Sparta,  and  there,  by  traitorous  counsel,  did 
all  in  his  power  to  ruin  the  very  expedition  he  had  planned. 

The  surest  way,  Alcibiades  told  the  Spartans,  in  which  to 
wreck  the  plans  of  the  Athenians  was  to  send  to  Sicily  at  once 
a  force  of  heavy-armed  men,  and  above  *all  a  good  Spartan  gen- 
eral, who  alone  would  be  worth  a  whole  army ;  for  the  Sicilians, 
disunited  and  jealous  of  each  other,  needed  to  have  some  one 
among  them  to  whom  all  would  defer. 

Alcibiades  also  suggested  to  the  Spartans  that  they  should 
seize  and  garrison  Decelea,  a  strong  and  commanding  position 
in  Attica,  only  fourteen  miles  from  Athens.  He  informed  the 
Spartans  that  the  Athenians  were  in  constant  fear  lest  their  ene- 
mies should  do  just  this  thing.  The  occupation  of  this  place  by 
a  Peloponnesian  force  would  be  much  more  annoying  and  dis- 
astrous to  the  Athenians  than  the  occupation  of  Pylos  by  the 
Athenians  had  been  to  the  Lacedaemonians. 

The  Spartans  acted  upon  the  advice  given  them  by  Alcibiades. 
They  made  preparations  for  fortifying  Decelea,  as  he  had  advised, 
and  sent  to  Sicily  their  ablest  general  GyHppus,  with  instructions 
to  push  the  war  there  with  the  utmost  vigor. 

248.  Sad  Plight  of  the  Athenians  before  Syracuse;  the  Fatal 
Eclipse;  the  Retreat;  the  End  of  the  Tragedy  (413  b.c).  —  The 

'  Just  upon  the  eve  of  the  departure  of  the  expedition,  the  numerous  statues 
of  Hermes  scattered  throughout  the  city  were  grossly  mutilated.'  Alcibiades  was 
accused  of  having  had  a  hand  in  the  affair,  and  furthermore  of  having  mimicked 
the  sacred  rites  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries. 


236  THE   PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

affairs  of  the  Athenians  in  Sicily  at  just  this  time  were  prosper- 
ing greatly.  But  the  arrival  of  Gylippus  changed  everything  at 
once.  After  some  severe  fighting  in  which  the  Athenians  lost 
heavily,  they  resolved  to  withdraw  their  forces  from  the  island 
while  retreat  by  the  sea  was  still  open  to  them. 

Just  as  the  ships  were  about  to  weigh  anchor,  there  occurred 
an  eclipse  of  the  moon.  This  portent  caused  the  greatest  con- 
sternation among  the  Athenian  troops.  Nicias  unfortunately  was 
a  superstitious  man,  having  full  faith  in  omens  and  divination. 
He  sought  now  the  advice,  not  of  his  colleagues,  but  of  his  sooth- 
sayers. They  pronounced  the  portent  to  be  an  unfavorable  one, 
and  advised  that  the  retreat  be  delayed  thirty-seven  days. 

Never  did  a  reliance  upon  omens  more  completely  undo  a 
people.  The  salvation  of  the  Athenians  depended  absolutely  upon 
their  immediate  retreat.  The  delay  prescribed  by  the  diviners 
was  fatal.  It  seems  the  irony  of  fate  that  the  Athenians,  who  of 
all  the  peoples  of  antiquity  had  most  completely  freed  themselves 
from  superstition,  who  more  than  any  other  men  had  learned  to 
depend  in  the  management  of  their  affairs  upon  their  own  intelH- 
gence  and  judgment,  should  perish  through  a  superstitious  regard 
for  omens  and  divination. 

Further  disaster  and  a  failure  of  provisions  finally  convinced 
the  Athenians  that  they  must  without  longer  delay  fight  their 
way  out  by  sea  or  by  land.  They  resolved  to  make  an  attempt 
first  to  break  through  the  blockade  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor, 
and  thus  open  a  way  of  escape  by  the  sea.  Failing  in  this,  they 
proposed  to  burn  their  ships,  cut  their  way  through  the  sur- 
rounding enemy,  and  march  to  some  friendly  city. 

The  attempt  to  fight  their  way  out  of  the  harbor  failed  dismally. 
There  was  now  no  course  open  save  retreat  by  land.  Making  such 
preparations  as  they  could  for  their  march,  they  set  out.  ''  They 
were,"  says  Thucydides,  whose  words  alone  can  picture  the  dis- 
tress of  the  scene,  "  in  a  dreadful  condition  :  indeed  they  seemed 
not  like  an  army,  but  Hke  the  fugitive  population  of  a  city  cap- 
tured after  a  siege ;  and  of  a  great  city,  too ;  for  the  multitude 
who  were  marching  numbered  not  less  than  forty  thousand." 


END   OF  THE   SICILIAN   EXPEDITION  237 

Pursued  and  harassed  by  the  Syracusans,  the  fleeing  multitude 
was  practically  annihilated.  Only  a  few  escaped.  The  prisoners, 
about  7000  in  number,  were  crowded  in  deep,  open  stone  quar- 
ries around  Syracuse,  in  which  prison  pens  hundreds  soon  died 
of  exposure  and  starvation.  Most  of  the  wretched  survivors  were 
finally  sold  into  slavery.  The  generals  Nicias  and  Demosthenes  ^ 
were  both  executed. 

The  tragedy  of  the  Sicilian  expedition  was  now  ended.  Two 
centuries  were  to  pass  before  Sicily  was  again  to  become  the  arena 
of  transactions  equally  significant  for  universal  history.  Then 
another  imperial  city  was  to  seek  in  Sicily,  with  Heaven  more 
propitious,  the  path  to  universal  dominion. 


III.  From  the  Sicilian  Disaster  to  the  Fall  of 
Athens;  the  Decelean  War  (413-404  b.c.) 

249.  How  the  Intelligence  of  the  Disaster  in  Sicily  was  received 
at-  Athens.  —  There  was  never  any  official  report  made  to  the 
Athenians  at  home  respecting  the  fate  of  their  fleet  and  army  in 
Sicily ;  for  there  was  no  one  left  who  could  make  such  a  report. 
Several  weeks  passed  before  the  news  of  the  disaster  reached 
Athens ;  and  when  finally  chance  survivors  of  the  catastrophe 
came  in  with  the  terrible  intelligence,  the  Athenians  treated  as 
ridiculous  fabrications  their  reports  of  what  had  happened  in  the 
island.  It  was  no  wonder  that  the  Athenians  refused  to  believe 
the  stories  of  the  fugitives ;   the  tidings  were  simply  incredible. 

Finally,  however,  the  Athenians  were  forced  to  recognize  the 
truth  of  the  reports.  Their  first  incredulity  now  gave  way  to 
mingled  feelings  of  anger,  grief,  and  fear.  Their  first  emotions, 
when  at  last  they  really  comprehended  the  magnitude  and  com- 
pleteness of  the  disaster  that  had  befallen  their  city,  seem  to  have 
been  feelings  of  furious  wrath  against  the  orators,  soothsayers, 
oracle  mongers,   and   all   who   had  advised   or  encouraged   the 

8  In  response  to  urgent  appeals  from  Nicias,  the  Athenians  in  the  spring  of 
413  B.C.  had  sent  out  to  Italy  large  reinforcements  under  the  general  Demosthenes. 


238  THE    PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

undertaking,  forgetting  that  it  was  they  themselves  who,  in  spite 
of  the  advice  of  Nicias  and  others,  had  voted  the  expedition.^ 

But  even  anger  had  to  make  place  for  grief.  It  was  the  young 
men  especially  who  had  eagerly  pushed  forward  for  a  place  in  the 
departing  ships.  There  was  scarcely  a  family  in  Athens  that  did 
not  mourn  a  son  or  near  relative,  while  all  mourned  neighbors  and 
friends  and  fellow-citizens.  And  the  cause  of  grief  was  not  simply 
that  relatives  and  friends  had  not  returned  ;  all  the  circumstances 
attending  their  fate  made  the  grief  of  those  remaining  the  deeper 
and  more  inconsolable.  Uncertainty  shrouded  the  fate  of  friends ; 
the  dead  lay  without  the  indispensable  rites  of  burial ;  the  living, 
reserved  for  a  worse  fate,  were  suffering  the  horrors  of  imprison- 
ment in  the  quarries  of  Syracuse,  or  were  already  toiling  in  slavery. 

A  panic  of  fear,  too,  had  seized  upon  the  people.  They  saw 
their  city  stripped  of  its  men  and  ships,  and  thus  defenseless 
in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  enemies.  In  imagination  they  saw 
all  their  old  deadly  enemies,  the  Boeotians,  the  Corinthians,  the 
Spartans,  and  all  the  others  —  they  reahzed  now  in  their  help- 
lessness how  many  enemies  they  had  made  —  already  at  their 
city  gates. 

250.  Effect  of  the  Occupation  of  Decelea  by  the  Spartans.  — 
What  contributed  greatly  to  this  feeling  of  helpless  fear  was  the 
fact  that  the  city  was  already  virtually  in  a  state  of  siege  by 
land  through  the  occupation  of  Decelea  by  the  Peloponnesians 
(sec.  247). 

The  fortification  of  Decelea  was  the  master  stroke  of  the 
Spartans  during  the  war.  Thucydides  says  that  the  occupation 
of  this  place  by  the  enemy  was  "  a  chief  cause  "  of  the  final  fall 
of  Athens.  Attica  was  not  simply  lost  to  Athens,  but  was  practi- 
cally transformed  into  a  Laconian  land.  The  garrison  so  com- 
pletely devastated  the  surrounding  country  that  all  the  sheep 
and  cattle  of  the  Athenians  perished,  while  a  great  multitude 
of  their  slaves  escaped.  The  overland  route  from  the  Euboean 
straits,  by  which  a  large  part  of  the  food  supplies  of  Athens  was 
ordinarily  brought  to  the  city,  was  blocked,  and  everything  had 

9  Thucydides,  vii.  i. 


NEW  ATHENIAN   ARMY  AND    NAVY  239 

now  to  be  brought  in  by  ship.  The  citizens,  moreover,  were  in 
constant  fear  of  a  surprise,  for  Decelea  was  within  sight  of 
Athens,  and  were  worn  out  with  watching  their  walls  night  and 
day.  Indeed,  such  a  determining  effect  did  the  occupation  by 
the  Spartans  of  this  strategic  point  exercise  upon  the  remainder 
of  the  war  that  this  latter  period  of  it,  as  already  noted,  is  known 
as  the  Decelean  War. 

251.  Measures  adopted  by  the  Athenians  for  maintaining  the 
War.  —  After  a  time  the  vehemence  of  their  first  feelings  gave 
place  in  the  Athenians  to  a  calmer  temper,  and  gradually,  since 
the  expected  enemy  did  not  appear,  to  a  more  hopeful  mood  ; 
and  with  most  admirable  courage  they  set  to  work  to  retrieve  their 
seemingly  irretrievable  fortune. 

Measures  were  concerted  for  the  raising  of  a  new  army,  for  the 
awful  disaster  had  swept  away  more  than  one  third  of  the  effective 
fighting  force  of  the -city.  Counting  their  aUies,  the  Athenians 
had  lost  in  Sicily  sixty  thousand  men.  To  fill,  in  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  great  gaps  in  their  ranks,  they  now  passed  a  decree 
recalling  from  banishment  all  save  such  as  had  actually  joined 
the  enemy.  The  garrisons  on  the  Peloponnesian  shore,  save  the 
one  at  Pylos,  were  called  home  to  help  man  the  walls  of  the  city. 

And  as  with  the  army,  so  was  it  with  the  fleet.  It  had  been 
practically  swept  out  of  existence.  Nearly  two  hundred  ships 
had  been  lost  on  the  Sicilian  shores.  The  harbor  of  the  Piraeus 
was  almost  empty.  But  the  Athenians  now  set  energetically  to 
work  to  repair  their  loss.  Ship  timber  was  brought  from  Mace- 
donia and  Thrace,  and  the  docks  of  the  Piraeus  soon  presented 
a  scene  of  bustling  activity.  The  spring  following  the  disaster 
saw  a  considerable  fleet  of  new  ships  ready  to  challenge  again 
the  enemy  on  the  seas. 

252.  Alcibiades  is  recalled  and  tries  to  undo  the  Mischief  he 
has  done  (411-407  B.C.).  —  Had  the  Athenians  been  united 
among  themselves,  perhaps  their  efforts  might  not  have  been  in 
vain.  But  the  aristocratic  party,  for  the  sake  of  ruining  the 
democracy,  were  wilHng  to  ruin  the  empire.  Taking  advantage 
of  the  absence  of  the  army  from  Athens,  they  overturned  the 


240  THE   PELOPONNESIAN    WAR 

government,  and  established  a  sort  of  aristocratic  rule  (411  B.C.), 
under  which  affairs  were  in  the  hands  of  a  council  of  Four 
Hundred. 

The  Athenian  troops,  however,  who  were  at  Samos,  would  not 
recognize  the  new  government.  They  voted  themselves  to  be 
the  true  Athens,  took  an  oath  to  uphold  the  democracy,  and 
forgetting  and  forgiving  the  past,  recalled  Alcibiades  —  who  had 
been  intriguing  for  his  return  —  and  gave  him  command  of  the 
army,  thereby  well  illustrating  what  the  poet  Aristophanes  said 
respecting  the  disposition  of  the  Athenians  towards  the  spoiled 
favorite,  —  "They  love,  they  hate,  but  cannot  live  without  him." 

Alcibiades  detached  the  Persians  from  the  side  of  the  Spartans, 
—  he  himself  had  traitorously  persuaded  them  again  to  inter- 
meddle in  the  affairs  of  the  Greeks,  —  and  gained  some  splendid 
victories  for  Athens.  But  he  could  not  undo  the  evil  he  had  done. 
He  had  ruined  Athens  beyond  redemption  by  any  human  power. 
Consequently  the  struggle  grew  more  and  more  hopeless.  Alcibi- 
ades was  defeated,  and,  fearing  to  face  the  Athenians,  who  had 
deposed  him  from  his  command,  sought  safety  in  flight.^*^ 

253.  The  Battle  of  Arginusae  (406  B.C.);  the  Condemnation  of 
the  Athenian  Generals.  —  The  most  important  engagement  of  the 
following  year  was  the  great  sea  fight  between  the  Peloponnesian 
fleet  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  ships  and  the  Athenian  fleet  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  ill-equipped  vessels,  at  the  islets  of  Arginusae, 
which  lie  between  Lesbos  and  the  Asian  shore.  The  Athenians 
were  victorious,  but  twenty-five  of  their  ships  were  wrecked  in 
the  terrible  encounter. 

The  splendid  victory  was  marred  by  a  great  misfortune  and  a 
great  crime.  After  the  battle  forty-seven  of  the  Athenian  ships 
had  been  detailed  to  rescue  the  crews  of  the  wrecked  galleys, 
while  the  remainder  pursued  the  fleeing  enemy.  A  severe  storm 
arising,  the  rescuing  party  was  unable  to  reach  the  wrecks,  and 
the  crews  perished.  Although  no  one  seems  to  have  been  to 
blame,  at  least  criminally  to  blame,  for  the  misfortune,  still  the 

W  Some  years  later  he  was  killed  in  Asia  Minor,  one  account  says  by  political,  but 
another  by  personal,  enemies  (404  B.C.). 


CAPTURE  OF  THE  ATHENIAN  FLEET    24I 

assembly  at  Athens,  by  a  hurried  and  illegal  vote,  notwithstanding 
the  protest  of  the  philosopher  Socrates,  who  happened  at  the 
time  to  be  one  of  the  presiding  officers  of  the  Ecclesia,  con- 
demned eight  of  the  generals  in  command  of  the  fleet  to  death, 
and  carried  the  decree  into  effect  as  to  the  six  who  were  present 
in  the  city.  This  action  of  the  Athenians  was  another  of  the 
crimes  of  the  democracy,  and  one  of  which  the  people  afterwards 
bitterly  repented. 

254.  Capture  of  the  Athenian  Fleet  by  Lysander  at  -^gospot- 
ami  (405  B.C.). — The  year  following  the  condemnation  of  the 
Athenian  generals  the  war  was  virtually  ended  by  the  surprise 
and  capture  of  the  Athenian  fleet  at  ^gospotami  (goat's  rivers), 
on  the  Hellespont,  by  the  Spartan  general  Lysander. 

All  of  the  prisoners  save  the  native  Athenians  were  released ; 
these  were  led  out  and,  to  the  number  of  four  thousand  it  is  said, 
put  to  death,  the  usual  rites  of  burial  being  denied  their  bodies. 
The  excuse  offered  for  this  massacre  was  that  the  Athenians  had 
thrown  some  prisoners  from  a  precipice,  and  also  that  they  had 
determined  to  cut  off  the  right  hand  of  all  the  prisoners  they 
might  make.  Probably  there  was  no  truth  in  these  accusations, 
but  they  served  as  a  pretext  for  the  barbarous  act. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  here  that  the  Greeks  had  advanced  beyond 
that  state  of  barbarism  in  war  where  the  life  of  the  prisoner  is 
taken  merely  for  the  sake  of  taking  it,  and  had  begun  to  recog- 
nize the  right  of  the  vanquished  at  least  to  life,  unless  this  right 
had  been  forfeited  by  some  special  act  of  treachery  or  disregard 
of  the  generally  recognized  laws  of  war. 

255.  The  Fall  of  Athens  (404  b.c).  —  Among  the  few  Athe- 
nian vessels  that  escaped  capture  at  the  hands  of  Lysander  was 
the  state  ship  Paralus,  which  hastened  to  Athens  with  the  tidings 
of  the  terrible  misfortune.  It  arrived  in  the  nighttime,  and  from 
the  Piraeus  the  awful  news,  published  by  a  despairing  wail,  spread 
up  the  Long  Walls  into  the  upper  city.  "That  night,"  says 
Xenophon,  "no  one  slept."  ^^  All  knew  that  the  fate  of  Athens 
was  sealed. 

11  Hellenica,  ii.  2,  3-4. 


242  THE   PELOPONNESIAN   WAR 

The  towns  on  the  Thracian  and  Macedonian  coasts  and  the 
islands  of  the  ^gean  belonging  to  the  Athenian  Empire  now  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Peloponnesians.  Athens  was  besieged  by 
sea  and  land,  and  soon  forced  to  surrender.  Some  of  the  allies 
insisted  upon  a  total  destruction  of  the  city  and  the  conversion 
of  its  site  into  pasture  land.  The  Spartans,  however,  with  appar- 
ent magnanimity,  declared  that  they  would  never  consent  thus 
**  to  put  out  one  of  the  eyes  of  Greece."  The  real  motive  of 
the  Spartans  in  sparing  the  city  was  their  fear  lest,  with  Athens 
blotted  out,  Thebes  or  Corinth  should  become  too  powerful,  and 
the  leadership  of  Sparta  be  thereby  endangered. 

The  final  resolve  of  the  conference  was  that  the  lives  of  the 
Athenians  should  be  spared,  but  that  they  should  be  required  to 
demolish  their  Long  Walls  and  those  of  the  Piraeus,  to  give  up 
all  their  ships  save  twelve,  to  allow  their  exiles  to  return,  and  to 
bind  themselves  to  do  Sparta's  bidding  both  by  sea  and  by  land. 

The  Athenians  were  forced  to  surrender  on  these  hard  and 
humiliating  conditions.  Straightway  the  victors  dismantled  the 
harbor  at  Piraeus,  burning  the  unfinished  ships  on  the  docks,  and 
then  began  the  demolition  of  the  Long  Walls  and  the  fortifica- 
tions, the  work  going  on  to  the  accompaniment  of  festive  music 
and  dancing;  for  the  Peloponnesians,  says  Xenophon,  looked 
upon  that  day  as  the  beginning  of  hberty  for  the  Plellenes. 

The  long  war  was  now  over.  The  dominion  of  the  imperial  city 
of  Athens  was  at  an  end,  and  the  great  days  of  Greece  were  past. 

256.  The  Results  of  the  War. — "Never,"  says  Thucydides, 
commenting  upon  the  lamentable  results  of  the  Peloponnesian 
War,  "  never  were  so  many  cities  captured  and  depopulated.  .  .  . 
Never  were  exile  and  slaughter  more  frequent,  whether  in  the 
war  or  brought  about  by  civil  strife."  Greece  never  recovered 
from  the  blow  which  had  destroyed  so  large  a  part  of  her 
population. 

Athens  was  merely  the  wreck  of  her  former  self.  The  harbor 
of  the  Piraeus,  once  crowded  with  the  ships  of  the  imperial  city, 
was  now  empty.  The  population  of  the  capital  had  been  terribly 
thinned.     Things  were  just  the  reverse  now  of  what  they  were 


RESULTS    OF   THE   WAR  243 

at  the  time  of  the  Persian  invasion,  when,  with  Athens  in  ruins, 
Themistocles  at  Salamis,  taunted  with  being  a  man  without  a  city, 
could  truthfully  declare  that  Athens  was  there  on  the  sea  in  her 
ships.  Now  the  real  Athens  was  gone ;  only  the  empty  shell 
remained.  And  with  her  was  gone  every  good  hope  of  the  Greek 
cities  ever  being  gathered  into  a  nation,  and  an  end  thereby 
placed  to  their  never-ceasing  contentions  and  wars. 

Not  Athens  alone,  but  all  Hellas,  bore  the  marks  of  the  cruel 
war.  Sites  once  covered  with  pleasant  villages  or  flourishing 
towns  were  now  plow  and  pasture  land.  But  more  lamentable 
than  all  else  was  the  effect  of  the  war  upon  the  intellectual  and 
moral  life  of  the  Greek  race.  The  Grecian  world  had  sunk 
many  degrees  in  morality ;  while  the  vigor  and  productiveness  of 
the  intellectual  and  artistic  life  of  Hellas,  the  center  and  home 
of  which  had  been  Athens,  were  impaired  beyond  recovery. 
The  achievements  of  the  Greek  intellect,  especially  in  the  fields 
of  philosophic  thought,  in  the  century  following  the  war  were, 
it  is  true,  wonderful ;  but  these  triumphs  merely  show,  we  may 
believe,  what  the  Hellenic  mind  would  have  done  for  art  and 
general  culture  had  it  been  permitted,  unchecked,  and  under 
the  favoring  and  inspiring  conditions  of  liberty  and  self-govern- 
m.ent,  to  disclose  all  that  was  latent  in  it. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  — Plutarch,  Life  of  Alcibiades.  Thucyd- 
IDES,  ii.  35-46;  the  funeral  oration  of  Pericles.  Xenophon,  Helleiiica, 
i.  4 ;  the  return  of  Alcibiades  to  Athens. 

References  (Modern).  —  Curtius,  vol.  iii,  pp.  321-413.  Grote  (ten- 
volume  ed.),  vols,  iv-vi.  Abbott,  vol.  iii,  chaps,  iii-xii.  Holm,  vol.  ii, 
chaps,  xxi-xxviii.  Cox,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  ii,  pp.  104-594;  and  Lives 
of  Greek  Statesmen,  "  Kleon,"  "  Brasidas,"  "  Demosthenes,"  and  "  Nikias." 
For  a  connected  history  of  the  Sicilian  Greek  cities,  see  Freeman,  The 
Sto7y  of  Sicily.  Creasy,  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World,  chap,  ii,  "  Defeat 
of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse,  B.C.  413." 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  debate  in  the  Athenian  assembly 
on  the  proposed  Sicilian  expedition.  See  Thucydides,  vi.  8-23.  2.  The 
siege  of  Plataea.     3.  Alcibiades.     4.  Nicias. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  SPARTAN  AND  THE  THEBAN  SUPREMACY 

(404-362  B.C.) 

I.  The   Spartan  Supremacy   (404-371  b.c.) 

257.  The  Character  of  the  Period. — Throughout  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War,  Sparta  had  maintained  that  her  only  purpose  in  war- 
ring against  Athens  was  to  regain  for  the  Grecian  cities  the  Hberty 
of  which  Athens  had  deprived  them.  But  no  sooner  was  the 
power  of  Athens  broken  than  Sparta  herself  began  to  play  the 
tyrant,  and  set  up  in  Greece  a  despotism  far  more  unendurable 
than  any  that  Athens  had  ever  maintained. 

The  cities  freed  from  the  rule  of  Athens,  instead  of  being  left 
free  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  were  at  once  made  the  sub- 
jects of  Sparta.  Their  democratic  governments  were  overthrown 
and  authority  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  oligarchic  councils  or 
bands,  generally  composed  of  ten  persons,  and  hence  known 
as  decarchies,  whose  tyranny  was  supported  by  Lacedaemonian 
garrisons.  Further,  Spartan  governors,  called  ha?'mosis,  officers 
who  exercised  the  arbitrary  authority  of  Persian  satraps,  were  sent 
to  the  different  cities.  The  experience  of  Athens  under  the  rule 
of  the  board  of  oligarchs  into  whose  hands  Lysander  delivered 
the  city  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  experiences  of  the  other 
cities  whose  affairs  the  Spartans  regulated  in  like  manner. 

258.  The  Thirty  Tyrants  at  Athens  (404-403  B.C.).  —  One  of 
the  conditions  exacted  by  Lysander  of  the  Athenians  upon  their 
surrender  was  that  they  should  allow  the  return  of  the  exiled 
oligarchs.  This  measure  was  intended  by  Lysander  to  pave  the 
way  for  the  abolition  of  the  democratic  government,  and  it  worked 
just  as  he  had  planned. 

244 


EXPEDITION  OF  THE  TEN  THOUSAND  GREEKS    245 

Upon  the  return  of  the  oHgarchs  the  democracy  was  over- 
thrown, and  m  its  place  was  set  up  an  oligarchic  government, 
administered  by  a  board  of  thirty  persons,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Critias.  These  men  instituted  such  an  infamous  tyranny  that 
they  were  known  as  the  Thirty  Tyrants.  Their  rule  was  a  perfect 
reign  of  terror,  and  was  supported  by  a  Lacedaemonian  garrison 
established  on  the  Acropolis. 

The  tyranny  was  too  atrocious  to  endure  long.  It  was  brought 
to  an  end  by  a  band  of  exiles,  and  the  old  democratic  consti- 
tution, somewhat  changed,  was  reestabHshed  (403  B.C.).  The 
memory  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants  was  assigned  to  eternal  execration. 


/    T  \e  ^  R    A   N  E   A  N 

s\e   A 


March  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks 


259.  The  Expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  (40 1-400  b.c.) . 
—  Shortly  after  these  transactions  at  Athens  there  took  place  an 
affair  of  momentous  consequences  in  Asia.  This  was  the  famous 
expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  through  the  heart  of  the 
dominions  of  the  Great  King.  The  circumstances  of  this  remark- 
able exploit  were  these. 

Cyrus,  brother  of  the  Persian  king  Artaxerxes  IT,  and  satrap  in 
Asia  Minor,  feeling  that  he  had  been  unjustly  excluded  from  the 


246  SPARTAN   AND   THEBAN    SUPREMACY 

throne  by  his  brother,  secretly  planned  to  dethrone  him.  From 
various  quarters  he  gathered  an  army  of  over  100,000  barbarians 
and  about  13,000  Greek  mercenaries  under  the  lead  of  a  Spartan 
named  Clearchus,  and  set  out  on  the  undertaking. 

The  march  of  the  expedition  through  Asia  Minor  and  across 
the  Mesopotamian  plains  was,  strangely  enough,  unimpeded  by 
the  Persians,  and  Cyrus  had  penetrated  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
Persian  Empire  before,  at  Cunaxa  in  Babylonia,  his  farther  advance 
was  disputed  by  Artaxerxes  with  an  army  numbering,  it  is  said, 
800,000  men.  In  the  battle  which  here  followed  the  splendid 
conduct  of  the  Greeks  won  the  day  for  their  leader.  Cyrus,  how- 
ever, was  slain;  and  Clearchus  and  the  other  Grecian  generals 
were  treacherously  seized  and  put  to  death. 

The  Greeks,  in  a  hurried  night  meeting,  chose  new  generals  to 
lead  them  back  to  their  homes.  The  chief  of  these  was  Xeno- 
phon,  the  popular  historian  of  the  expedition.  Under  his  direc- 
tion the  Greeks  made  one  of  the  most  memorable  retreats  in 
all  history.  They  traversed  the  plains  of  the  Tigris,  and  then,  in 
the  midst  of  the  winter  season,  crossed  the  snowy  passes  of  the 
mountains  of  Armenia.  Finally,  after  almost  incredible  hardships, 
the  head  of  the  retreating  column  reached  the  top  of  a  moun- 
tain ridge  whence  the  waters  of  the  Euxine  appeared  to  view. 
A  great  shout,  ''Thalassa.!  Thalassa!''  (The  sea  !  the  sea  !),  arose 
and  spread  back  through  the  column,  creating  a  tumult  of  joy 
among  the  soldiers,  weary  with  their  seemingly  endless  marching 
and  fighting. 

The  Greeks  had  struck  the  sea  at  the  spot  where  stood  the 
Greek  colony  of  Trapezus  (now  Trebizond),  whence  they  finally 
made  their  way  home. 

The  march  of  the  Ten  Thousand  is  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  military  exploits  of  antiquity.  Its  historical 
significance  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  it  paved  the  way  for 
the  later  expedition  of  Alexander  the  Great.  This  it  did  by 
revealing  to  the  Greeks  the  decayed  state  of  the  Persian  Empire, 
and  showing  how  feeble  was  the  resistance  which  it  could  offer 
to  the  march  of  an  army  of  disciplined  soldiers. 


CONDEMNATION  AND  DEATH  OF  SOCRATES      247 

260.  The  Condemnation  and  Death  of  Socrates  (399  b.c). — 
While  Xenophon  was  yet  away  on  his  expedition,  there  hap- 
pened in  his  native  city  one  of  the  saddest  tragedies  in  history. 
This  w^as  the  trial  and  condemnation  to  death  by  the  Athenians 
of  their  fellow-citizen  Socrates,  the  greatest  moral  teacher  of 
pagan  antiquity. 

The  double  charge  upon  which  he  was  condemned  was  worded 
as  follows  :  "  Socrates  is  guilty  of  crime,  —  first,  for  not  worship- 
ing the  gods  whom  the  city  w^orships,  but  in  introducing  new 
divinities  of  his  own ;  next,  for  corrupting  the  youth.  The  pen- 
alty is  death." 

We  are  surprised  that  such  a  man  as  Socrates  should  have 
been  the  object  of  such  a  prosecution  in  tolerant,  free-thinking, 
and  freedom-loving  Athens.  But  his  prosecutors  were  moved 
by  other  motives  besides  zeal  for  the  national  worship.  Socrates 
during  his  long  life,  —  he  was  now  an  old  man  of  seventy  years, 
—  spent  as  an  uncompromising  teacher  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, had  made  many  personal  enemies.  He  had  exposed  by  his 
searching  questions  the  ignorance  of  many  a  vain  pretender  to 
wisdom,  and  stirred  up  thereby  many  lasting  resentments.  He 
had  disturbed  many  pious  people  by  the  unconventional  w^ay  in 
which  he  talked  about  the  popular  gods.  The  fact  that  Alci- 
biades  and  Critias  had  both  been  disciples  of  his  was  used  to 
show  the  dangerous  tendency  of  his  teachings. 

Socrates  again  had  offended  many  through  his  opposition  to 
the  Athenian  democracy;  for  he  did  not  always  approve  of  the 
way  the  Athenians  had  of  doing  things,  and  told  them  so  plainly. 
He  favored,  for  instance,  the  limitation  of  the  franchise,  and 
ridiculed  the  Athenian  method  of  selecting  magistrates  by  the  use 
of  the  lot  (sec.  226),  as  though  the  lot  could  pick  out  the  men 
best  fitted  to  govern.  But  the  people,  especially  since  the 
events  of  the  year  404  B.C.,  were  very  sensitive  to  all  criticism 
of  this  kind  which  tended  to  discredit  their  cherished  democratic 
institutions. 

The  trial  was  before  a  dicastery  or  citizen  court  (sec.  229) 
composed  of  over  five  hundred  jurors.     Socrates  made  no  serious 


248  SPARTAN   AND   THEBAN    SUPREMACY 

attempt  to  secure  a  favorable  verdict  from  the  court,  steadily 
refusing  to  make  any  unbecoming  appeal  to  his  judges  for  clem- 
ency. Instead  of  doing  this,  he  embraced  the  opportunity  to 
tell  the  jurors  some  wholesome  truths;  and  after  he  had  been 
pronounced  guilty,  when  called  upon,  according  to  custom,  to 
name  the  penalty  which  he  would  have  the  court  inflict,^  he  said 
that  he  thought  he  deserved  to  be  supported  for  the  rest  of  his 
life  at  the  public  expense.  He  finally,  however,  yielding  to  the 
entreaties  of  his  friends,  proposed  a  penalty  of  thirty  minae.^ 
The  dicasts,  irritated  by  the  words  and  manner  of  Socrates, 
pronounced  against  him  by  a  majority  vote  the  extreme  sentence 
of  death. 

It  so  happened  that  the  sentence  was  pronounced  just  after 
the  sacred  ship  that  yearly  bore  the  offerings  to  Delos  in  com-- 
memoration  of  the  deliverance  of  the  Athenian  youth  from  the 
Cretan  Minotaur  (sec.  128)  had  set  sail  on  its  holy  commission, 
and  since  by  a  law  of  the  city  no  one  could  be  put  to  death 
while  it  was  away,  Socrates  was  led  to  prison,  and  there  remained 
for  about  thirty  days  before  the  execution  of  the  sentence.  This 
period  Socrates  spent  in  serene  converse  with  his  friends  upon 
those  lofty  themes  that  had  occupied  his  thoughts  during  all 
his  life.  When  at  last  the  hour  for  his  departure  had  arrived, 
he  bade  his  friends  farewell,  and  then  calmly  drank  the  cup  of 
poison  hemlock. 

261.  The  Spartan  King  Agesilaus  and  the  War  in  Asia  Minor 
against  the  Persians  (399-394  b.c).  —  We  must  now  turn  from 
Athenian  matters  to  view  the  affairs  of  the  Greeks  in  Asia  Minor. 

Momentous  consequences  issued  from  the  unsuccessful  attempt 
of  Cyrus  to  dethrone  his  brother.  Artaxerxes  set  about  to  chas- 
tise the  Greek  cities  of  the  coast  which,  through  moral  support 
or  active  cooperation,  had  aided  Gyms.  These  cities  appealed  to 
Sparta  to  defend  them  from  Persian  vengeance. 

1  The  way  of  fixing  the  penalty  in  an  Athenian  court  was  this :  the  accuser  named 
a  penalty  (in  this  case  the  prosecutor  had  named  death)  and  then  the  condemned 
was  at  liberty  to  name  another.  The  jury  then  chose  between  the  two.  They  must 
impose  one  or  the  other  penalty ;  they  were  not  at  liberty  to  choose  a  third. 

2  A  mina  was  equivalent  to  about  ^i8  or  ^20. 


THE   CORINTHIAN    WAR  249 

The  Spartans  sent  the  assistance  solicited.  After  the  war  had 
been  maintained  for  some  time  with  no  very  decisive  results  for 
either  party,  new  vigor  was  infused  into  it  on  the  Spartan  side 
by  the  appearance  upon  the  scene  of  the  Spartan  king  Agesilaus. 
This  man  was  consumed  by  an  ambition  to  emulate  the  exploits 
of  Agamemnon.  He  believed,  relying  on  what  the  Ten  Thou- 
sand Greeks  had  achieved,  that  he  should  be  able  to  march  to 
Susa  and  overthrow  completely  the  Persian  power. 

Agesilaus  was  an  able  commander,  and  by  his  successes  threat- 
ened to  make  an  end  of  the  Persian  authority  in  Asia  Minor. 
Just  at  this  moment  the  Ephors  were  constrained  to  recall  him 
to  the  defense  of  Spartan  interests  in  Greece  proper. 

262.  The  Corinthian  War  (395-387  B.C.).  —  Unable  to  cope 
with  the  Spartans  in  the  open  field  in  Asia,  the  Great  King,  in 
order  to  secure  their  withdrawal,  had  resorted  to  the  device  of 
stirring  up  trouble  for  them  at  home.  This  it  was  easy  to  do, 
for  the  tyrannical  course  of  Sparta  had  won  for  her  universal 
fear  and  hatred.  The  emissaries  of  Artaxerxes,  by  means  of 
persuasions  and  bribes,  succeeded  in  forming  a  coalition  of 
the  chief  states  of  European  Greece  against  her.  There  now 
began  a  long  and  tedious  struggle  known  as  the  Corinthian  War 
(395-387  B.C.),  in  which  the  Spartans,  with  the  few  alhes  that 
remained  true  to  them,  contended  against  the  united  forces  of 
Corinth,  Athens,  Thebes,  Argos,  and  other  Greek  states,  together 
with  the  troops  and  ships  of  Persia. 

As  a  part  of  their  policy  to  strengthen  the  enemies  of  Sparta, 
the  Persians  aided  the  Athenians  in  rebuilding  the  Long  Walls 
and  the  fortifications  of  the  Piraeus.  The  restoration  of  their 
walls  seemed  to  the  exultant  and  hopeful  Athenians  the  pledge 
of  the  restoration  of  their  fallen  empire. 

But  this  restoration  of  the  defenses  of  Athens  naturally  stirred 
the  jealousy  of  her  new  allies,  so  that  their  zeal  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war  against  Sparta  slackened,  while  at  the  same  time 
it  awakened  the  fears  of  the  Spartans,  who,  after  maintaining  the 
struggle  for  some  years  longer,  resolved  to  save  their  authority  in 
Greece  proper  by  making  peace  with  the  Persians. 


250  SPARTAN  AND   THEBAN   SUPREMACY 

263.  The  Peace  of  Antalcidas  (387  B.C.).  —  In  pursuance  of  this 
resolution  they  sent  to  Susa  an  ambassador  named  Antalcidas, 
through  whose  efforts  were  arranged  the  articles  of  a  treaty,  which 
is  called  after  him  the  Peace  of  Antalcidas.  By  the  terms  of  this 
treaty,  famous  because,  so  infamous,  all  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia 
Minor,  as  well  as  the  island  of  Cyprus  and  the  island  city  of 
Clazomenae,  were  handed  over  to  the  Persians.  Three  islands 
—  Lemnos,  Imbros,  and  Scyros  —  were  given  to  Athens.  All 
the  other  islands  and  the  states  of  the  Grecian  mainland  were 
left  each  in  a  condition  of  absolute  independence.  No  city  was 
to  rule  over  others  or  to  exact  tribute  from  them.  The  edict 
of  King  Artaxerxes  closed  as  follows  :  "  Whosoever  refuses  to 
accept  this  peace,  him  I  shall  fight,  assisted  by  those  who  are  of 
the  same  mind  [which  meant  the  Spartans],  by  land  as  well  as 
by  sea,  with  ships  and  with  money." 

Thus  were  the  Asian  Greeks  betrayed  by  Sparta  into  the  hands 
of  the  barbarians.  Thus  were  the  hated  Persians,  through  her 
shameful  betrayal  of  Hellenic  interests,  made  the  arbiters  in 
Greek  affairs. 

264.  Sparta  forces  the  Terms  of  the  Peace  upon  the  Other  Gre- 
cian Cities,  but  disregards  them  herself.  —  Sparta  regarded  herself 
as  the  executor  of  the  Peace.  One  of  its  articles  said  that  every 
city  should  be  independent,  —  that  no  city  should  rule  over  an- 
other ;  and  Sparta  now  set  about  enforcing  this  provision  of  the 
treaty,  not  with  a  view  to  giving  liberty  to  cities  that  were  being 
held  in  unwilling  subjection  by  more  powerful  neighbors,  but 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up  all  unions  and  confedera- 
tions that  might  place  a  check  upon  her  ambition  and  tyranny. 

Under  the  operation  of  the  treaty,  the  Bceotian  League  fell  to 
pieces.  The  Spartans  saw  to  it  that  the  dissolution  was  com- 
plete, and  that  there  should  be  no  chance  for  Thebes  to  revive 
her  presidency  of  the  Boeotian  towns.  The  government  in  the 
different  places  was  put  in  the  hands  of  oligarchs  friendly  to 
Sparta.  Plataea  was  restored,  and  a  Spartan  garrison  placed  in 
the  town.  Thus  all  Boeotia  was  broken  up  into  petty  states 
wholly  dependent  upon  Sparta. 


SPARTA  BREAKS  UP  THE  OLYNTHIAN  LEAGUE   25  I 

From  the  dissolution  of  the  Boeotian  League  the  Spartans  pro- 
ceeded to  the  dissolution  of  the  Arcadian  city  of  Mantinea.  The 
articles  of  the  Peace  did  not  of  course  have  any  application  to 
individual  cities,  but  the  Spartans,  nevertheless,  stretched  its  terms 
so  as  to  make  them  apply  to  the  case  in  hand,  since  they  ima- 
gined the  Mantineans  to  be  unfriendly  in  their  feelings  towards 
them.  They  ordered,  them  to  tear  down  their  walls.  The  Man- 
tineans refusing  to  comply  with  this  mandate,  the  Spartans  laid 
siege  to  the  town,  and  soon  forced  it  to  surrender.  The  city  was 
now  broken  up  into  five  unwalled  villages,  four  fifths  of  the  inhab- 
itants being  forced  to  tear  down  their  houses  in  the  old  town  and 
put  them  up  again  out  in  the  country. 

The  Olynthian  Confederacy  was  next  dissolved.  This  was  a 
most  important  union  of  Macedonian  and  Grecian  towns  in  the 
Chalcidian  region.  It  was  a  free  and  equal  federation  of  cities, 
somewhat  Hke  the  original  Confederacy  of  Delos  (sec.  219).  The 
towns  had  adopted  common  laws,  sanctioned  intermarriage  be- 
tween their  citizens,  and  adopted  Hberal  regulations  respecting 
residence  and  commerce.  It  was  one  of  the  most  promising 
attempts  that  had  yet  been  made  to  create  an  Hellenic  nation 
out  of  the  isolated  cities  of  Hellas. 

The  Spartans  had  committed  many  sins  against  Hellenic  liber- 
ties, but  none  that  drew  after  it  a  more  lamentable  train  of  con- 
sequences than  this.  The  Olynthian  League,  had  it  been  allowed 
to  consolidate  itself,  might  have  proved  a  bulwark  to  Greece 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  kings  of  Macedonia. 

The  military  movements  of  the  Spartans  against  the  Olynthian 
Confederacy  connect  themselves  with  a  shameful  act  of  perfidy 
committed  by  them  against  the  Thebans.  As  a  Spartan  general 
was  marching  through  Boeotia  on  his  way  to  Chalcidice,  he,  con- 
sumed by  a  desire  to  do  some  great  thing,  made  a  secret  descent 
upon  Thebes  while  the  inhabitants  were  engaged  in  the  celebra- 
tion of  a  festival,  and  seized  and  garrisoned  the  citadel  (382  B.C.). 

All  Greece  stood  aghast  at  the  perfidious,  high-handed  pro- 
ceeding, and  looked  to  see  the  Spartans  at  home  repudiate  the 
act  of  their  general.     They  did  so  in  this  way  :  they  fined  the 


252  SPARTAN   AND    THEBAN    SUPREMACY 

general  for  his  conduct  and  deposed   him   from  his  command, 
—  but  retained  possession  of  the  stolen  citadel. 

265.  The  Liberation  of  Thebes  by  Pelopidas  (379  b.c.)  and  the 
Revival  of  the  Boeotian  League  (374  b.c).  —  Even  Xenophon, 
the  admirer  and  steady  friend  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  was  con- 
strained to  see  in  the  misfortunes  that  now  began  to  befall  Sparta 
the  divine  retribution  upon  her  for  her  violation  of  her  solemn 
pledge  to  leave  the  Grecian  cities  free,  and  above  all  for  her 
crime  in  seizing  the  citadel  of  the  Thebans. 

As  if  to  meet  the  requirements  of  ideal  justice,  the  avengers  of 
the  wrongs  of  Thebes  were  raised  up  from  among  those  very 
persons  whom  that  treacherous  act  had  made  exiles  from  their 
native  city.  Among  those  exiles  who  had  found  an  asylum  at 
Athens  was  Pelopidas,  a  Theban  of  distinguished  family.  Taking 
with  him  six  other  exiles,  Pelopidas  entered  Thebes  by  stealth,  and 
by  means  of  a  stratagem  slew  the  leaders  of  the  oligarchic  party. 
The  people  were  then  called  to  arms,  the  Lacedaemonian  garrison 
was  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  citadel,  and  the  government 
was  taken  into  the  hands  of  the  popular  party.  The  old  Bceotian 
League  was  now  revived,  with  Thebes  as  the  presiding  city.^ 

266.  The  Battle  of  Leuctra  (371  b.c.).  — But  the  Spartans 
would  not  have  it  so.  They  sent  an  army  into  Bceotia  to  com- 
pel Thebes  to  restore  independence  to  the  various  Boeotian  towns. 
The  Thebans,  led  now  by  Epaminondas,  a  devoted  friend  of 
Pelopidas  and  the  greatest  statesman  and  commander  Thebes 
ever  produced,  marched  out  and  met  the  invaders  at  Leuctra, 
not  far  from  ThespiEe.  The  Spartans  had  no  other  thought  than 
that  they  should  gain  an  easy  victory  over  the  Thebans ;  and  it 
was  generally  expected  that  Thebes  would  now  be  broken  up  into 
villages  as  Mantinea  had  been,  or  perhaps  destroyed  utterly. 

8  This  revolution  in  Boeotia  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  chapter  in  Grecian 
history.  Encouraged  by  the  event,  Athens  formed  a  new  confederacy  Uke  the  old 
DeHan  League.  The  union  numbered  at  last  over  seventy  members.  Even  Thebes 
joined  it.  The  confederacy  was  to  rest  on  principles  of  absolute  equahty  and  jus- 
tice. Its  affairs  were  to  be  directed  by  an  assembly  composed  of  representatives  of 
all  the  allied  cities.  The  members  were  to  make  contributions  to  a  common  fund,- 
but  there  was  to  be  no  more  tribute  collecting  by  Athens. 


THE    BATTLE   OF   LEUCTRA 


253 


/  But  the  military  genius  of  Epaminondas  had  prepared  for 
/Hellas  a  startling  surprise.  He  had  introduced  in  the  arrange- 
ment and  movement  of  his  battle  line  one  of  the  greatest  inno- 
-vations  thaUaaaik  the  advance  in  the  art" of  war.  Hitherto  the 
^^reeks  had  fought  drawn  up  in  extended  and  "compairatively  thin 
opposing  lines,  not  more  than  twelve  ranks  deep.  The  Spartans 
at  Leuctra  formed  their  line  in  the  usual  way.  Epaminondas,  on 
the  other  hand,  massed  his  best  troops  in  a  soHd  column,  that 
is  in  a  phalanx,  fifty  deep,  on  the  left  of  his  battle  hne,  the  rest 
being  drawn  up  in  the 
ordinary  extended  line. 
With  all  ready  for  the  at- 
tack, the  phalanx  was  set 
in  motion  first,  the  center 
of  the  Hne  next,  and  the 
right  wing  last,  so  that  the 
solid  column  should  strike 
the  enemy's  line  before  the 
center  or  right  should 
come  into  action.  The 
result  was  that  the  phalanx 
plowed  through  the  thin  line  Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Leuctra 
of  the  enemy  "as  the  beak  ^^^ 

of  a  ship  plows  through  a  wave,"  —  and  the  day  was  won.  Of 
the  seven  hundred  Spartans  in  the  fight  four  hundred  were  killed. 
The  manner  in  which  the  news  of  the  overwhelming  calamity 
was  received  at  Sparta  affords  a  striking  illustration  of  Spartan  dis- 
cipline and  self-control.  It  so  happened  that  when  the  messenger 
arrived  the  Spartans  were  celebrating  a  festival.  The  Ephors 
would  permit  no  interruption  of  the  entertainment.  They  merely 
sent  fists  of  the  fallen  to  their  famiUes,  and  ordered  that  the  women 
should  make  no  lamentation  nor  show  any  signs  of  grief.  "  The 
following  day,"  says  Xenophon,  "  those  who  had  lost  relatives  in 
the  battle  appeared  on  the  streets  with  cheerful  faces,  while  those 
whose  relatives  had  escaped,  if  they  appeared  in  public  at  all, 
went  about  with  sad  and  dejected  looks." 


254  SPARTAN  AND  THEBAN   SUPREMACY 

Historians  have  very  naturally  been  led  to  contrast  this  scene 
at  Sparta  with  that  at  Athens  upon  the  night  of  the  receipt  of  the 
news  of  the  disaster  of  yEgospotami  (sec.  255).  ,  The  contrast 
impresses  us  with  the  wide  interval  which  separated  the  Athenian 
from  the  Spartan. 

The  moral  effect  of  the  battle  was  greater  perhaps  than  that  of 
any  other  battle  ever  fought  in  Greece,  except  possibly  that  of 
Marathon.  It  was  the  first  time  that  a  Spartan  army  with  its  king 
had  been  fairly  beaten  in  a  great  battle  by  an  enemy  inferior  in 
numbers.  The  Spartan  forces  at  Thermopylae  headed  by  their 
king  had,  it  is  true,  been  annihilated,  —  but  annihilation  is  not 
defeat.  Consequently  the  impression  which  the  event  produced 
V  throughout  Greece  was  profound.  The  prestige  of  Sparta  was 
/destroyed.     Her  leadership  was  brought  to  an  end. 

II.  The  Ascendancy  of  Thebes  (371-362  b.c.) 

267.  Epaminondas  ravages  Laconia  (370  B.C.).  — The  victory  of 
the  Thebans  at  Leuctra  lifted  Thebes  at  once  to  a  commanding 
position  in  Greece.  Almost  all  the  states  of  Central  Greece  now 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  her.  So  many  were  her  allies,  and 
so  eager  were  all  to  inflict  punishment  upon  Sparta  for  all  her 
past  acts  of  usurpation  and  despotism,  that  Epaminondas  was  able 
to  raise  an  immense  army,  numbering,  it  is  said,  sixty  or  seventy 
thousand,  for  the  invasion  of  the  Peloponnesus. 

The  primary  object  of  the  expedition  was  to  aid  the  Arcadians 
in  forming  a  confederacy  for  defense  against  Sparta.^  Once  in 
Arcadia  with  his  army,  Epaminondas,  yielding  to  the  wishes  of 
his  allies,  pushed  on  into  Laconia,  ravaged  it  from  the  northern 
mountains  to  the  sea  on  the  south,  and  even  threatened  Sparta 

4  Up  to  this  time  the  Arcadians  had  lived  for  the  most  part  in  isolated  and  inde- 
pendent villages.  In  all  the  country  there  were  only  a  few  walled  towns.  Largely 
because  of  this  state  of  things,  Sparta  had  been  able  to  hold  the  different  towns  and 
villages  in  subjection,  and  compel  them  to  do  her  bidding.  Just  now,  stirred  by  an 
impulse  towards  union,  they  were  building  a  federal  capital  which  they  had  named 
Megalopolis  ("  Great  City").  Sparta  was  interfering  and  trying  to  prevent  the  for- 
mation of  the  federal  state. 


THE   FOUNDING   OF   MESSENE  255 

itself.  The  Spartan  women  had  never  before  seen  the  camp  fire 
of  an  enemy ;  and  the  sight  of  the  hostile  army  is  said  to  have 
excited  them  to  frantic  demonstrations  of  distress. 

268.  The  Founding  of  Messene  and  the  Liberation  of  the  Mes- 
senians  (370  b.c).  — From  Laconia,  Epaminondas  marched  into 
Messenia.  The  emancipation  of  the  Messenians  from  their  Spar- 
tan masters  was  proclaimed,  and  Messenia,  which  for  three  hun- 
dred years  had  been  a  part  of  Laconia,  was  separated  from  Sparta 
and  made  an  independent  state.  In  thus  restoring  independence 
to  the  Messenians,  Epaminondas  was  merely  enforcing  against 
Sparta  the  terms  of  the  Peace  of  Antalcidas,  the  articles  of  which 
she  had  herself  dictated,  and  which  said  that  all  the  Greek  cities 
should  be  left  free  and  independent. 

The  Helots  and  Perioeci,  converted  by  the  proclamation  of 
emancipation  into  freemen,  engaged  in  the  work  of  building  a 
new  city,  Messene,  which  was  to  represent  their  restored  nation- 
ality. The  walls  went  up  amidst  music  and  rejoicing.  Messenian 
exiles,  the  victims  of  Spartan  tyranny,  flocked  from  all  parts  of  the 
Hellenic  world  to  rebuild  their  homes  in  the  home  land. 

This  emancipation  and  restoration  of  the  Messenians  forms  one 
of  the  most  interesting  transactions  in  Greek  history.  Two  years 
after  their  liberation  a  Messenian  boy  was  crowned  as  a  victor  in 
the  foot  race  at  Olympia.  For  three  hundred  years  the  Messe- 
nians had  had  neither  lot  nor  part  in  these  national  games,  for  only 
free  Hellenes  could  become  contestants.  How  the  news  of  the 
victory  was  received  in  Messenia  is  not  recorded,  but  we  probably 
should  not  be  wrong  were  we  to  imagine  the  rejoicings  there 
to  have  been  unlike  anything  the  Greek  world  had  ever  seen 
before. 

The  liberation  of  Messenia  was  a  terrible  blow  to  Spartan  pride 
and  an  unmeasured  loss  and  damage  to  her  power.  It  was  intol- 
erable to  her  in  the  Peloponnesian  War  to  have  a  hostile  garrison 
intrenched  at  a  single  point  on  the  Messenian  coast  (sec.  238). 
Now  all  Messenia  had  become  an  asylum  for  runaway  Helots 
from  Laconia,  and  the  residence  and  stronghold  of  her  former 
subjects,  imbittered  by  centuries  of  hard  bondage. 


256  SPARTAN   AND   THEBAN   SUPREMACY 

Thus  had  Epaminondas  in  a  few  short  months  effected  one  of 
the  greatest  revolutions  in  Grecian  history.  In  his  own  words, 
he  "  had  liberated  all  the  Greek  cities,  restored  independence  to 
Messenia,  and  surrounded  Sparta  with  a  perpetual  blockade." 

269.  The  Thebans  extend  their  Influence  in  the  North  —  and 
**  go  to  Susa." — About  the  time  that  Epaminondas  was  effect- 
ing such  changes  in  the  Peloponnesus,  his  friend  Pelopidas  was 
extending  the  influence  of  Thebes  in  the  North. 

At  this  time  Alexander,  tyrant  of  Pherse  in  Thessaly,  was  hold- 
ing the  other  Thessalian  cities  in  unwilling  subjection.  Some  of 
them  rose  against  him  and  called  upon  Thebes  to  help  deliver  them 
from  his  tyranny.  Pelopidas  led  a  Theban  force  into  the  country, 
and  forced  Alexander  to  grant  freedom  to  the  revolted  towns 
(368  B.C.). 

Pelopidas  then  marched  against  the  regent  of  Macedonia,  who 
had  been  interfering  in  Thessalian  affairs,  and  forced  him  to  enter 
into  an  alliance  with  Thebes  and  to  give  hostages.  Among  these 
hostages  was  a  young  Macedonian  prince  named  PhiHp,  of  whom 
we  shall  hear  much  later  on  as  king  of  Macedon.  Thus  the  expe- 
dition of  Pelopidas  resulted  in  both  Thessaly  and  Macedonia  being 
brought  into  dependent  relations  to  Thebes. 

The  year  following  these  achievements  Pelopidas  was  sent  as 
an  envoy  to  Susa  to  secure  from  the  Great  King  the  recognition 
of  Thebes  instead  of  Sparta  as  the  head  of  the  Greek  cities  and 
as  the  practical  executor  of  the  articles  of  the  Peace  of  Antalcidas. 
Thebes  secured  all  she  desired. 

This  appeal  to  the  Persian  king,  whereby  he  was  recognized  as 
the  rightful  arbiter  in  Greek  affairs,  was  the  most  censurable  act 
of  the  Thebans  during  their  period  of  supremacy.  But  in  going 
to  Susa  the  Thebans  were  merely  walking  in  a  path  worn  by  the 
Spartans  and  other  Greeks. 

270.  The  Battle  of  Mantinea  and  the  Death  of  Epaminondas 
(362  B.C.).  —  In  the  year  362  B.C.  Epaminondas  made  his  fourth^ 
and  what  proved  to  be  his  last  expedition  into  the  Peloponnesus. 

5  During  the  years  369  and  367  B.C.  Epaminondas  made  his  second  and  third 
expeditions  beyond  the  Isthmus,  but  accompUshed  nothing  of  importance. 


SITUATION    IN   GREECE  AFTER   MANTINEA      257 

In  Arcadia,  near  Mantinea,  he  joined  battle  with  the  Spartans 
and  their  alhes. 

Epaminondas  employed  the  same  tactics  on  this  field  as  had 
given  him  the  victory  at  Leuctra  (sec.  266),  and  with  the  same 
result.  But  the  victory  was  dearly  purchased  with  the  life  of 
Epaminondas,  who  just  as  the  day  was  won  fell  mortally  wounded 
with  a  spear  thrust  in  the  breast. 

In  accordance  with  the  dying  counsel  of  Epaminondas,  the 
victorious  Thebans  and  their  allies  negotiated  a  peace  with  the 
enemy.  Its  basis  was  that  everything  should  remain  just  as  it 
then  was.  Particularly  was  Messene  to  be  recognized  as  a  free 
and  independent  city.  The  peace  was  agreed  to  by  all  the  states 
on  both  sides,  save  by  the  Spartans,  who  angrily  and  obstinately 
refused  to  recognize  the  independence  of  Messene. 

271.  The  Situation  in  Greece  after  the  Death  of  Epaminondas.  — 
The  supremacy  of  Thebes  ended  on  the  day  that  Epaminondas 
was  borne  to  the  tomb.  There  was  none  among  her  citizens 
capable  of  maintaining  for  her  the  leadership  in  Greece  which 
her  great  commander  and  statesman  had  won. 

All  the  chief  cities  of  Greece  now  lay  in  a  state  of  exhaustion 
or  of  helpless  isolation.  Sparta  had  destroyed  the  empire  of 
Athens ;  ^  Thebes  had  broken  the  dominion  of  Sparta,  but  had 
exhausted  herself  in  the  effort.  There  was  now  no  city  energetic, 
resourceful,  unbroken  in  spirit  and  strength,  such  as  was  x\thens 
at  the  time  of  the  Persian  Wars,  to  act  as  leader  and  champion 
of  the  Greek  states.  Yet  never  was  there  greater  need  of  such 
leadership  in  Hellas  than  at  just  this  moment;  for  the  Mace- 
donian monarchy  was  now  rising  in  the  north  and  threatening 
the  independence  of  all  Greece. 

In  a  succeeding  chapter  we  shall  trace  the  rise  of  this  semi- 
barbarian  power,  and  tell  how  the  cities  of  Greece,  mutually 
exhausted  by  their  incessant  quarrels,  were  reduced  to  a  state 
of  dependence  upon  its  sovereign.     But  first  we  shall  turn  aside 

6  Athens  had  indeed  made  herself  the  center  of  a  new  confederacy  (sec.  265,  n.  3) 
and  had  recovered  some  of  her  old  possessions,  but  she  \s'as,  after  all,  only  the 
shadow  of  her  former  self. 


258  SPARTAN   AND   THEBAN    SUPREMACY 

for  a  moment  from  the  affairs  of  the  cities  of  Greece  proper,  in 
order  to  cast  a  glance  upon  the  Greeks  of  Magna  Graecia  and 
Sicily. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Pelopidas.  Xeno 
PHON,  Anabasis,  iii.  2  ;  a  speech  of  Xenophon  to  his  soldiers.  Plato, 
Apology,  xxxi.-xxxiii. ;  the  bearing  of  Socrates  before  his  judges. 

References  (Modern). —  Curtius,  vol.  iv.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.) 
vol.  vi,  pp.  451-533;  vol.  vii,  pp.  81-172  (on  Socrates);  pp.  173-348  (on 
the  expedition  of  Cyrus);  pp.  349-550;  vol.  viii,  pp.  1-365.  Holm,  vol.  ii 
chap.  XXX  ;  vol.  iii,  chaps,  i-x.  Bury,  History  of  Greece,  chap.  xiv.  Oman, 
History  of  Greece,  pp.  407-469.  Sankey,  The  Spartan  and  Theban 
Supremacies. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  trial  and  condemnation  of  Socrates 
2.  The  expedition  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks.  3.  Athens'  new  con 
federacy.     4.  Pelopidas.     5.  The  Sacred  Band  of  Thebes. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  GREEKS   OF  WESTERN  HELLAS 

(413-336  B.C.) 

272.  The  Carthaginians  lay  waste  Hellenic  Sicily.  —  It  will  be 
remembered  that  it  was  the  inhabitants  of  Egesta  who  invited  the 
Athenians  into  Sicily  to  aid  them  against  the  neighboring  city  of 
Selinus  ^  (sec.  245).  Shortly  after  the  destruction  of  the  Athenian 
armament  before  Syracuse,  these  same  people  appealed  to  the 
Carthaginians  to  come  to  their  aid  against  the  same  old  enemy. 

The  Carthaginians  came  with  a  great  army  of  100,000  men 
under  the  lead  of  Hannibal,  a  grandson  of  the  Hamilcar  who 
seventy  years  before  this  had  been  defeated  and  slain  by  Gelo, 
tyrant  of  Syracuse,  on  the  memorable  field  of  Himera  (sec.  214, 
n.  11).  Sehnus  was  besieged  by  them,  and  after  a  brave  resistance 
was  finally  taken  by  storm.  The  inhabitants  were  either  mas- 
sacred or  carried  away  into  slavery,  and  the  walls  and  temples  of 
the  city  destroyed  (409  B.C.). 

Hannibal  next  led  his  army  against  Himera,  which  he  soon 
captured.  In  revenge  for  the  death  of  his  ancestor,  Hannibal 
offered  up  to  his  gods  an  awful  holocaust  of  three  thousand  of  his 
prisoners,  and  razed  the  city  to  the  ground  (409  B.C.).  The 
dismay  created  throughout  the  Hellenic  world  by  this  wiping  out 
by  the  Western  barbarians  of  this  ancient  and  powerful  Greek 
city  was  like  that  created  by  the  destruction  of  Miletus  by  the 
Eastern  barbarians  at  the  beginning  of  the  Persian  Wars  (sec.  199). 

A  few  years  later  the  Carthaginians  laid  siege  to  Agrigentum, 
which  was  at  this  time  one  of  the  most  populous  and  prosperous 
cities  of  the  Hellenic  world.  A  long  and  stubborn  resistance  was 
ended  by  threatened  famine.     The  inhabitants  escaped  massacre 

1  For  places  referred  to  in  this  chapter  see  map  on  p.  157. 
259 


26o  THE   GREEKS   OF  WESTERN    HELLAS 

by  a  hurried  flight  under  cover  of  the  darkness  of  night.  Two 
hundred  thousand  fugitives,  men,  women,  and  children,  made  up 
the  pitiable  procession.  The  homeless  multitude  found  asylum 
among  the  various  Greek  communities  in  the  island.  All  wlio 
had  not  been  able  to  join  the  night  march  were  massacred  by 
the  enemy. 

Thus  in  the  course  of  three  years  did  the  Carthaginians,  finding 
their  opportunity  in  the  dissensions  of  the  Greek  cities,  succeed 
in  blotting  out  several  of  the  largest  and  most  prosperous  of  the 
Hellenic  communities  of  Sicily.  Throughout  a  considerable  part 
of  the  island  Hellenic  civilization,  planted  centuries  before,  was 
practically  uprooted.  As  we  shall  see,  the  land  afterwards 
recovered  in  a  measure  from  the  terrible  blow,  and  enjoyed  a 
short  bloom  of  prosperity ;  nevertheless  the  resources  and  ener- 
gies of  this  part  of  the  Hellenic  world,  like  those  of  continental 
Greece  through  the  unhappy  causes  we  have  recounted  in  other 
chapters,  were  permanently  and  irremediably  impaired. 

273.  Dionysius  I,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse  (405-367  B.C.). — The 
alarm,  distress,  and  anarchy  occasioned  by  the  invasions  of  the 
Carthaginians  afforded  the  opportunity  at  Syracuse  for  a  man  of 
low  birth,  named  Dionysius,  to  usurp  the  government.  His  career 
as  despot  of  the  city  was  long  and  remarkable,  embracing  a  period 
of  thirty-eight  years. 

Dionysius  occupied  a  large  part  of  his  prolonged  reign  in  ever- 
renewed  attempts  to  drive  the  Carthaginians  out  of  Sicily.  The 
issue  of  the  protracted  struggle  was  that  at  the  end  of  his  rule 
the  frontier  between  the  Carthaginian  and  the  Greek  territory  was 
practically  the  same  as  at  the  beginning  of  his  tyranny. 

At  the  same  time  that  Dionysius  was  carrying  on  his  campaigns 
against  the  foreigners,  he  was  reducing  the  free  Greek  Sicilian 
cities  to  a  state  of  dependence  upon  Syracuse. 

But  Dionysius  did  not  confine  his  operations  to  Sicily.  With 
his  power  fairly  consolidated  in  the  island,  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  Magna  Grsecia.  He  conquered  all  the  cities  here,  from 
Rhegium  to  Croton.  Many  of  the  cities  he  destroyed  as  ruth- 
lessly as  though  he  were  a  barbarian  without  Hellenic  sympathies 


DIONYSIUS    I,  TYRANT   OF   SYRACUSE  26 1 

and  instincts.  Some  of  the  inhabitants  he  sold  into  slavery, 
others  he  transported  to  Sicily  to  swell  the  population  of  Syra- 
cuse.    Even  the  temples  he  robbed  of  their  treasures. 

The  conquered  Italian  lands  were  incorporated  in  the  empire 
of  the  tyrant,  which  now  embraced  practically  all  of  Western 
Hellas.  Thus  upon  the  ruins  of  a  vast  number  of  once  free  and 
prosperous  Greek  cities  Syracuse  was  raised  to  a  position  of 
power  and  influence  corresponding  to  that  which  Athens  had  so 
recently  held  in  Eastern  Hellas. 

But  the  militar}^  operations  of  Dionysius  exhibit  only  one  phase 
of  his  many-sided  activity.  The  tyrant  possessed  a  Pericles'  love 
of  art,  and  during  his  rule  he  adorned  Syracuse  with  many  splen- 
did pubhc  buildings,  meeting  the  expense  of  their  erection  by 
crushing  taxes  levied  on  his  subjects  and  the  confiscation  of  the 
riches  of  the  wealthy.  Since  Athens  was  now  dismantled,  Syra- 
cuse was  at  this  time  probably  the  most  splendid  and  powerful 
city  in  the  whole  Hellenic  world. 

Dionysius  was  also  a  patron  of  Hterature  and  philosophy. 
Plato  (sec.  354)  was  for  a  time  a  guest  at  his  court;  but  the 
views  of  the  philosopher,  or  his  way  of  presenting  them,  seem 
to  have  been  displeasing  to  the  tyrant,  who  caused  him  to  be 
sold  as  a  slave,  from  which  condition  he  was  ransomed  by  a 
friend.  Dionysius  was  himself  a  poet  of  no  mean  ability,  and 
composed  a  tragedy  to  which  the  Athenians  awarded  the  first 
prize  at  the  Dionysiac  festival. 

The  tyrant  particularly  aspired  to  be  the  recipient  of  the  honors 
and  prizes  awarded  at  the  great  festivals  at  Olympia.  He  wrote 
poems  to  be  recited  to  the  crowds  that  gathered  there,  and  sent 
chariots  to  run  in  the  races.  In  the  year  384  B.C.  he  sent  an 
unusually  magnificent  embassy  to  represent  him  at  the  games. 
His  ambassadors  at  this  time  were  insulted,  and  were  even 
threatened  with  personal  violence  by  the  people. 

Various  circumstances  contributed  to  the  vehemence  of  the 
feelings  of  the  Olympian  visitors  against  Dionysius.  There  was 
the  general  abhorrence  of  tyrants  ingrained  in  the  Greek  mind ; 
and  there  was  the  special  enormity  of  the  crimes  of  the  S>Tacusan 


262  THE   GREEKS    OF   WESTERN    HELLAS 

despot  against  Greek  freedom,  witnessed  to  by  the  crowds  of 
exiles,  the  victims  of  his  unbearable  tyranny,  who  filled  the  cities 
of  Eastern  Hellas. 

Besides  all  this,  the  critical  condition  of  the  Greek  world  at 
large  at  just  this  moment  created  a  special  susceptibihty  to 
Panhellenic  sentiment  in  all  generous  and  large-minded  Greeks. 
It  was  only  three  years  before  this  Olympic  festival  that  the  dis- 
graceful Peace  of  Antalcidas  had  abandoned  the  Greeks  of  Asia 
to  the  Persian  king  (sec.  263).  And  now  the  freedom  of  the 
Western  Greeks  had  been  extinguished  by  the  tyrant  of  Syra- 
cuse. The  seriousness  of  the  situation  was  vividly  pictured  by 
the  great  orator  Lysias,  who,  in  denouncing  the  tyrant  to  the 
crowds  at  Olympia,  exclaimed,  *'The  Hellenic  world  is  on  fire 
at  both  ends." 

The  object  of  universal  detestation,  Dionysius  carried  his  life 
in  his  hands.  The  state  of  constant  apprehension  in  which  he 
lived  is  illustrated  by  the  story  of  the  sword  of  Damocles.^  The 
Damoclean  sword  did  not  fall  during  the  lifetime  of  Dionysius. 
He  ended  his  life  by  a  natural  death,  and  transmitted  his  power 
to  his  son,  who  ascended  the  throne  as  Dionysius  the  Younger. 

274.  Dionysius  the  Younger  (367-343  B.C.). — The  young 
Dionysius  lacked  the  ability  of  his  father  to  play  the  tyrant,  and 
left  the  government  at  first  very  largely  in  the  hands  of  his  father- 
in-law,  Dion,  a  man  of  philosophic  tastes,  and  in  some  respects 
a  dreamer.  Through  Dion's  influence  Plato  was  once  more 
brought  to  Syracuse  and  introduced  to  Dionysius.  The  philoso- 
pher urged  the  despot  to  change  his  tyranny  into  a  regulated 
monarchy,  and  to  give  freedom  to  the  cities  of  his  empire.  For 
a  time  the  tyrant  seemed  to  yield  to  the  influence  of  his  teacher, 
but  very  soon  the  breath  of  calumny  poisoned  his  mind  against 
both  Dion  and  Plato,  the  former  of  whom  he  was  made  to  believe 

2  A  courtier  nJmed  Damocles  having  expressed  to  Dionysius  the  opinion  that 
he  must  be  supremely  happy,  the  tyrant  invited  him  to  a  sumptuous  banquet,  assign- 
ing to  him  his  own  place  at  the  board.  When  the  courtier  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
enjoyments  of  the  table,  Dionysius  bade  him  look  up.  Turning  his  eyes  towards  the 
ceiling,  Damocles  was  horrified  at  the  sight  of  a  sword,  suspended  by  a  single  hair, 
dangling  above  his  head.     "  Such,"  observed  Dionysius,  "is  the  life  of  a  tyrant." 


TIMOLEON    THE   LIBERATOR  263 

was  plotting  to  undermine  his  power.  Dion  was  exiled ;  Plato 
was  permitted  to  return  to  Greece. 

Freed  from  the  restraints  of  philosophy,  Dionysius  plunged 
into  reckless  dissipation  and  began  to  exhibit  the  more  ignoble 
traits  of  his  character.  His  reign  was  a  troubled  one  and  was 
filled  with  all  sorts  of  vicissitudes.  Most  of  the  Sicilian  cities 
broke  away  from  the  empire.  The  Carthaginians  began  again 
to  harass  the  island.  Everything  was  in  confusion,  and  distress 
among  the  people  was  universal. 

275.  Timoleon  the  Liberator  (344-336  B.C.)  :  the  Golden  Era 
of  the  Sicilian  Greek  Cities.  — Under  the  stress  of  these  circum- 
stances the  Syracusans  sent  an  embassy  to  Corinth,  their  mother 
city,  for  help  to  free  themselves  from  the  tyrant  Dionysius.  The 
Corinthians  listened  favorably  to  the  appeal,  and  sent  to  the  suc- 
cor of  the  Syracusans  a  small  force  under  the  lead  of  Timoleon,  a 
man  who  at  home  had  shown  his  love  for  liberty  by  consenting  to 
the  death  of  his  own  brother  when  he  attempted  to  make  himself 
tyrant  of  Corinth. 

Arriving  at  Syracuse,  Timoleon  quickly  drove  out  the  tyrant 
and  restored  the  government  to  the  people.  He  also  expelled 
the  despots  who  were  holding  in  slavery  other  Greek  cities  in  the 
island,  and  restored  freedom  to  these  places.  At  the  same  time 
he  engaged  in  battle  with  the  Carthaginians,  who  were  still  trou- 
bling the  Greeks,  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  memorable  defeat. 

Syracuse  and  the  other  Sicilian  Greek  cities  now  entered  upon 
the  golden  era  of  their  history.  The  desolation  that  reigned 
throughout  Sicily  when  Timoleon  first  entered  the  island  can 
with  difficulty  be  pictured.  Plutarch  tells  us  that  cattle  and 
horses  were  pastured  in  the  streets  and  market  places  of  the 
once  populous  cities,  while  deer  and  other  wild  animals  were 
hunted  in  the  deserted  suburbs.  A  few  years  before  Timoleon 
embarked  on  his  expedition,  Plato  had  expressed  a  fear  that  the 
Hellenic  race  would  become  extinct  in  Sicily. 

Under  the  reign  of  liberty  and  order  instituted  by  Timoleon, 
the  empty  cities  began  to  fill  with  inhabitants.  Exiles  flocked 
back  from  all  quarters.     Corinth,  mindful  that  Syracuse  was  her 


264 


THE  GREEKS  OF  WESTERN  HELLAS 


own  daughter  colony,  gathered  from  all  parts  of  Eastern  Hellas 
colonists  for  the  repeopling  of  the  city.  At  one  time  ten  thousand 
emigrants  sailed  together  for  Sicily.  This  great  influx  of  population, 
and  the  new  and  unwonted  courage  and  energy  infused  into  the 
people  by  the  beneficent  measures  of  Timoleon,  brought  to  Hel- 
lenic Sicily  a  period  of  remarkable  expansion  and  prosperity. 

With  his  great  work  of  freeing  and  repeopling  Sicily  accom- 
plished, Timoleon  resigned  his  authority  and  retired  to  private 
life.  He  died  in  the  year  336  B.C.,  loved  and  revered  by  all  the 
Sicihan  Greeks  as  their  liberator  and  benefactor. 

276.  The  Later  Fortunes  of  the  Greek  Cities  of  Sicily  and 
Magna  Graecia. — The  golden  age  of  the  Greek  cities  of  the 
West  came  to  an  end  shortly  after  the  death  of  Timoleon.     In 


Fig.  90.  —  Coin  of  Syracuse 

the  year  316  B.C.  the  noted  Agathocles  made  himself  tyrant  of 
Syracuse.  He  reigned  for  twenty-eight  years.  After  his  death 
a  period  of  discord  followed,  and  then  the  government  fell  into 
the  hands  of  another  celebrated  tyrant,  Hiero  II  (about  270- 
216  B.C.),  who  became  the  firm  ally  of  Rome  in  her  struggle 
with  Carthage.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Hiero,  as  a  punishment 
for  its  having  forsaken  the  Roman  -for  a  Carthaginian  alliance, 
the  Romans  extinguished  the  independence  of  the  city  and 
made  it  a  part  of  their  dominions. 

The  Italian  cities,  which  had  regained  their  independence  at 
the  time  that  Timoleon  destroyed  the  power  of  the  Dionysian 
dynasty,  were  many  of  them  soon  afterwards  conquered  by  the 


REFERENCES  265 

native  Italian  tribes,  and   finally  all  were  overwhelmed  by  the 
rising  power  of  Rome. 

Having  made  this  hasty  review  of  the  course  of  events  in 
Western  Hellas,  we  must  now  return  to  Greece  proper  in  order 
to  trace  further  the  fortunes  of  the  cities  of  the  home  land. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Timoleon  and  Life 
of  Dion. 

References  (Modern). —  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  iii,  pp.  366-495, 
vol.  ix,  pp.  1-194.  Holm,  vol.  iii,  chap.  xi.  Oman,  LListory  of  Greece, 
pp.  441-449.  Allcroft  and  Masom,  LListory  of  Sicily,  chaps,  vii-xi. 
Freeman,  LListory  of  Sicily,  vol.  iv,  chaps,  x  and  xi ;  and  The  Story  of 
Sicily,  chaps,  x  and  xi.  An  interesting  brief  treatment  of  the  rule  of 
Dionysius  the  Elder  will  be  found  in  Bury,  LListory  of  Greece,  pp.  639-666. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  Dionysius  the  Elder.  2.  The  Cartha- 
ginians in  Sicily.  3.  Monuments  of  Greek  civilization  in  Sicily.  See 
Richardson's  Vacation^Days  in  Greece.  4.  "  The  tyrannies  and  democracies 
of  Greek  cities  were  in  their  nature  not  adapted  to  create  and  maintain 
large  empires."  Bury  makes  this  statement  with  reference  to  the  work  of 
Dionysius  the  Elder.     Discuss  this. 


CHAPTER   XXV 
THE  RISE  OF  MACEDONIA:   REIGN  OF  PHILIP  II 

(359-336    B.C.) 

277.  The  Macedonians  and  their  Rulers.  —  We  have  reached  now 
the  threshold  of  a  new  era  in  Greek  history.  A  state,  hitherto  but 
Uttle  observed,  at  this  time  rose  suddenly  into  prominence  and 
began  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Greek  cities. 
This  state  was  Macedonia,  a  country  lying  north  of  the  Cambunian 
Mountains  and  back  of  Chalcidice  (see  map,  p.  274). 

The  peoples  of  Macedonia  were  for  the  most  part  mountaineers 
who  had  not  yet  passed  beyond  the  tribal  state.^  They  were  a 
hardy,  warhke  race,  possessing  the  habits  and  the  virtues  of  coun- 
try people.  They  were  Aryans  in  speech,  but  since  they  did 
not  speak  pure  Greek  and  were  backward  in  culture,  they  were 
looked  upon  as  barbarians  by  their  more  refined  city  kinsmen 
of  the  South. 

The  ruling  race  in  the  country,  however,  were  of  Hellenic 
stock.  They  claimed  to  be  descended  from  the  royal  house  of 
Argos,  and  this  claim  had  been  allowed  by  the  Greeks,  who  had 
permitted  them  to  appear  as  contestants  in  the  Olympian  games, 
—  a  privilege,  it  will  be  recalled,  accorded  only  to  those  who 
could  prove  pure  Hellenic  ancestry.  Their  efforts  to  spread 
Greek  culture  among  their  subjects,  combined  with  intercourse 
with  the  Greek  cities  of  Chalcidice,  had  resulted  in  the  native 
barbarism  of  the  Macedonian  tribes  being  overlaid  with  a  veneer 
of  Hellenic  civilization. 

278.  The  Youth  of  Philip  of  Macedon.  —  Macedonia  first  rose 
to  importance  during   the   reign   of  Philip   H    (359-336  B.C.), 

1  There  were,  however,  a  few  towns  in  Macedonia,  of  which  /Egae  and  Pella, 
each  of  which  was  in  turn  the  seat  of  the  royal  court,  were  of  chief  note. 

266 


PHILIP   EXTENDS   HIS   DOMINIONS  267 

generally  known  as  Philip  of  Macedon.  He  was  a  man  of  pre- 
eminent ability,  of  wonderful  address  in  diplomacy,  and  of  rare 
genius  as  an  organizer  and  military  chieftain. 

Several  years  of  Philip's  boyhood  were  passed  as  a  hostage  at 
Thebes  (sec.  269).  This  episode  in  the  Ufe  of  the  prince  had  a 
marked  influence  upon  his  later  career ;  for  just  at  this  time 
Epaminondas  was  the  leading  spirit  among  the  Thebans,  and  it 
was  in  the  companionship  of  this  consummate  military  tactician 
and  commander  that  Philip  learned  valuable  lessons  in  the  art  of 
war.  The  "  Macedonian  phalanx,"  ^  which  Philip  is  said  to  have 
originated,  and  which  holds  some  such  place  in  the  military  his- 
tory of  Macedonia  as  the  "legion"  holds  in  that  of  Rome,  was 
simply  a  modification  of  the  Theban  phalanx  that  won  the  day  at 
Leuctra  and  again  at  Mantinea. 

Nor  was  this  all.  Besides  the  knowledge  of  military  affairs 
which  he  acquired,  the  quick  and  observant  boy  gained  during 
his  enforced  residence  at  Thebes  an  insight  into  Greek  character 
and  Greek  pohtics  which  sened  him  well  in  his  later  diplomatic 
dealings  with  the  Greek  cities. 

The  death  of  his  brother  Perdiccas  brought  Philip  to  the  Mace- 
donian throne  in  the  year  359  B.C.  With  affairs  settled  at  home 
and  his  kingdom  consolidated,  the  ambition  of  the  youthfuLking 
led  him  to  endeavor  to  subject  the  Greek  cities  to  his  authority. 

279.  Philip  extends  his  Dominions  in  Chalcidice  and  Thrace.  — 
PhiHp's  first  encroachments  upon  Cxreek  territory  were  made  in 
the  Chalcidian  region.  He  coveted  particularly  the  possession  of 
Amphipolis,  which  was  the  gateway  from  Macedonia  into  Thrace. 
He  easily  made  prize  of  the  city  (358  B.C.). 

Philip  next  captured  the  important  city  of  Pydna,  on  the  Ther- 
maic  Gulf.  After\vards  he  wrested  Potidaea  from  Athens,  and  just 
to  create  enmity  between  the  Athenians  and  the  Olynthians,  possi- 
ble allies  against  him,  gave  the  city  to  the  latter. 

2  The  phalanx  was  formed  of  soldiers  drawn  up  sixteen  files  deep  and  armed 
with  pikes  so  long  that  those  of  the  first  five  ranks  projected  beyond  the  front  of 
the  column,  thus  opposing  a  perfect  thicket  of  spears  to  the  enemy.  On  level 
ground  it  was  irresistible. 


268 


THE   RISE   OF   MACEDONIA 


The  western  portions  of  Thrace  were  next  conquered  by  Phihp 
and  added  to  his  growing  dominions.  In  this  quarter  he  founded 
the  well-known  city  of  Philippi.^  His  Thracian  conquests  gave 
him  control  of  the  rich  gold  mines  of  this  region,  and  furnished 
him  with  the  means  which  he  later  so  freely  used  to  corrupt  and 
bribe  the  leaders  of  the  Greek  cities. 

280.  Demosthenes  and  his  Olynthiac  Orations;  Philip  destroys 
Olynthus  and  Other  Chalcidian  Cities  (348  B.C.).  —  The  Athenian 
orator  Demosthenes  (sec.  343)  was  one  of  the  few  who  seemed  to 
understand  the  real  designs  of  Philip. 
His  penetration,  hke  that  of  Pericles, 
descried  a  cloud  lowering  over  Greece — 
this  time  from  the  North.  With  all  the 
persuasion  of  his  wonderful  eloquence  he 
strove  to  stir  up  the  Athenians  to  resist 
the  encroachments  of  the  king  of  Mace- 
don.  He  hurled  against  him  his  famous 
Philippics,  speeches  so  filled  with  fierce 
denunciation  that  they  have  given  name 
to  all  writings  characterized  by  bitter 
criticism  or  violent  invective. 

Demosthenes  was  opposed  in  his  war 
policy  by  a  considerable  peace  party 
at  Athens,  among  the  leaders  of  which 
were  Phocion  and  ^schines.  Phocion 
was  an  upright  and  incorruptible  man 
and  an  able  and  trusted  general.  He 
opposed  Demosthenes  for  the  reason  that  he  thought  the  inter- 
ests of  Athens  would  be  best  served  through  the  maintenance 
of  friendly  relations  with  Macedonia,  ^schines  was  a  gifted 
orator,  who,  there  is  reason  to  beHeve,  corrupted  by  Macedo- 
nian gold,  traitorously  used  his  influence  at  Athens  to  promote 
the  plans  of  Phihp. 

3  Philippi  was  the  first  European  city  in  which  the  Gospel  was  preached.  The 
preacher  was  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  went  over  from  Asia  in  obedience  to  the  vision 
in  which  a  man  of  Macedonia  seemed  to  stand  and  pray,  "  Come  over  into  Mace- 
donia, and  help  us." 


Fig.  91.  —  Demosthenes 
(Vatican  Museum) 


PHILIP  AND  THE  SECOND  SACRED  WAR       269 

The  field  of  Philip's  aggressions  at  just  this  time  was  the  Chal- 
cidian  peninsula.  He  was  intent  upon  the  destruction  of  Olynthus 
and  her  confederacy.  Demosthenes,  as  we  have  intimated,  appears 
to  have  been  almost  the  only  man  at  Athens  who  recognized  the 
significance  of  the  struggle  on  the  Thracian  shore.  He  saw  clearly 
that  the  fall  of  the  Greek  cities  there  meant  the  fall,  sooner  or 
later,  of  the  cities  of  Greece  proper.  In  three  speeches,  known 
as  the  Olynthiac  orations,  he  strove  to  arouse  his  countrymen  to 
a  sense  of  the  imminence  of  the  danger  which  was  threatening. 
The  burden  of  the  three  orations  was,  It  is  better  for  us  to  fight 
Philip  in  Chalcidice  than  in  Attica.  If  Philip  takes  Olynthus, 
he  will  soon  be  here.  The  speeches  are  filled  with  complaining 
comparisons  between  the  alert  and  patriotic  spirit  evinced  by  the 
Athenians  in  earlier  times  when  the  Persians  were  at  the  gates  of 
Greece,  and  the  languid,  pusillanimous  temper  of  the  citizens  now 
when  the  Macedonians  were  threatening  the  northern  passes  of 
the  land.  In  the  second  speech  the  orator  endeavors  to  encour- 
age, the  Athenians  to  action  by  showing  that  Philip's  power  was 
rather  apparent  than  real.  "  It  is  impossible,"  he  says,  "  to  build 
up  an  empire  by  injustice,  perjury,  and  falsehood." 

The  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  was  all  in  vain.  The  Athenians 
could  not  be  stirred  to  timely  action.  Olynthus  fell  into  the  hands 
of  PhiHp  (348  B.C.),  and  with  it  all  the  other  cities  of  the  Chal- 
cidian  Confederacy,  thirty-two  in  all.  Many  of  the  towns  were 
destroyed  and  a  great  part  of  their  inhabitants  sold  into  slavery. 

281.  Philip  and  the  Second  Sacred  War  (355-346  B.C.). — Up  to 
this  time  Philip  had  not  come  directly  in  contact  with  the  states  of 
Greece  proper.  But  shortly  after  he  had  added  the  Chalcidian 
lands  to  his  empire  he  acquired  in  the  following  way  a  voice  and 
vote  in  the  affairs  of  the  cities  of  the  peninsula. 

The  Phocians  were  accused  of  having  put  to  secular  use  some 
of  the  lands  which,  at  the  end  of  the  First  Sacred  War  (sec.  144), 
had  been  consecrated  to  the  Delphian  Apollo.  Taken  to  task  and 
heavily  fined  for  this  act  by  the  other  members  of  the  Delphian 
Amphictyony,  the  Phocians  seized  the  temple  and  used  the  treas- 
ure in  the  maintenance  of  a  large  force  of  mercenary  soldiers. 


270  THE   RISE    OF    MACEDONIA 

The  Amphictyons,  not  being  able  to  punish  the  Phocians  for  their 
"  impiety,"  '^  were  forced  to  ask  help  of  Philip,  who  gladly  rendered 
the  assistance  sought. 

The  Phocians  were  finally  constrained  to  yield  to  superior  force. 
A  heavy  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  Amphictyonic 
council.  All  their  cities  save  one  were  broken  up  into  villages, 
and  the  inhabitants  were  forced  to  undertake  to  pay  back  in  yearly 
installments  the  treasure  they  had  taken  from  the  Delphian  shrine. 
The  place  which  the  Phocians  had  held  in  the  Delphian 
Amphictyony  was  given  to  Philip,  upon  whom  was  also  bestowed 
the  privilege  of  presiding  at  the  Pythian  games.  The  position 
which  he  had  now  secured  was  exactly  such  as  he  had  coveted.^ 
He  now  awaited  a  further  opportunity  to  extend  and  strengthen 
his  authority  in  Greece. 

282.  The  Battle  of  Chaeronea  (338  B.C.).— The  opportunity 
soon  came.  The  Phocians  having  been  again  adjudged  guilty  of 
sacrilege  in  using  some  lands  belonging  to  the  Delphian  Apollo, 
Phihp  was  a  second  time  asked  to  help  punish  them.  He  gladly 
undertook  the  commission,  and  straightway  led  an  army  into 
Central  Greece.  But  instead  of  proceeding  to  mete  out  punish- 
ment to  the  trespassers  upon  the  holy  ground,  he  seized  and 
began  to  fortify  a  little  town  in  Phocis.  This  procedure  plainly 
revealed  his  purpose  to  make  himself  master  of  the  country. 

Moved  by  the  realization  of  a  common  peril  and  by  the  persua- 
sion of  Demosthenes,  the  Athenians  and  the  Thebans,  in  spite  of 
their  immemorial  enmity  one  towards  the  other,  now  united  their 
forces  and  met  Philip  at  Chaeronea,  in  Bceotia.  The  battle  was 
stubbornly  fought,  but  finally  went  against  the  aUies,  who  were 
driven  from  the  field  with  heavy  loss.  It  is  of  interest  to  note 
that  the  Macedonian  phalanx  was  led  by  the  youthful  Alexander, 
the  son  of  Philip,  who  on  this  memorable  field  began  his  great 
career  as  a  commander.  The  result  of  the  battle  was  the  subjuga- 
tion of  all  Greece  to  the  authority  of  the  Macedonian  foreigner. 

4  The  Phocians  claimed  that  they  took  the  treasure  merely  as  a  loan  (compare 
sec.  311,  n.  2).  r     L        1        J 

5  As  further  outcomes  of  the  war,  Philip  had  made  himself  master  of  Thessaly  and 
had  got  possession  of  the  Pass  of  Thermopylae. 


THE   CONGRESS  AT   CORINTH  271 

283.  The  Congress  at  Corinth ;  Plan  to  invade  Asia  (338  B.C.). 
—  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Ch^ronea,  Philip  convened  at  Corinth 
a  council  of  the  Grecian  states.  At  this  meeting  was  adopted  a 
constitution,  drafted  by  Phihp,  which  united  the  various  Greek 
cities  and  Macedonia  in  a  sort  of  federation,  with  Macedonia 
as  the  leading  state.  Differences  arising  between  members  of 
the  federation  were  to  be  referred  for  settlement  to  the  Amphic- 
tyonic  assembly. 

But  Philip's  main  object  in  calling  the  congress  was  not  so  much 
to  promulgate  a  federal  constitution  for  the  Greek  cities  as  to 
secure  their  aid  in  an  expedition  which  he  had  evidently  long  been 
meditating  for  the  conquest  of  the  Persian  Empire.  The  exploit 
of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  (sec.  259)  had  shown  the  feasi- 
bility of  such  an  undertaking.  The  plan  was  indorsed  by  the 
congress.  Every  Greek  city  was  to  furnish  a  contingent  for  the 
army  of  invasion.  PhiHp  was  chosen  leader  of  the  expedition, 
and  commander-in-chief  of  the  war  forces  of  Greece. 

All  Greece  was  now  astir  with  preparations  for  the  great  enter- 
prise. By  the  spring  of  the  year  336  B.C.  the  expedition  was 
ready  to  move,  and  the  advance  forces  had  already  crossed  over 
into  Asia,  when  Philip,  during  the  festivities  attending  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter,  was  assassinated  by  a  young  noble,  who 
sought  thus  to  avenge  a  personal  affront.  His  son  Alexander 
succeeded  to  his  place  and  power. 

284.  Results  of  Philip's  Reign.  — Philip  by  his  achievements 
made  possible  the  greater  achievements  of  his  son.  He  paved 
the  way  for  Alexander's  remarkable  conquests  by  consolidat- 
ing the  Macedonian  monarchy  and  organizing  an  army  which 
was  the  most  effective  instrument  of  warfare  the  world  had 
yet  seen. 

But  the  most  important  outcome  of  PhiHp's  activity  and  policy 
was  the  union  of  the  Macedonian  monarchical  and  military  system 
with  Hellenic  culture.  This  was  the  historical  mission  of  Philip. 
Had  not  Hellenic  civilization  been  thus  incorporated  with  the 
Macedonian  system,  then  the  wide  conquests  of  Alexander  would 
have  resulted  in  no  more  good  for  humanity  than  those  of  a 


272  THE    RISE    OF    MACEDONIA 

Tamerlane  or  an  Attila.®  And,  on  the  other  hand,  Greek  cul- 
ture, had  not  this  union  been  effected  by  Phihp,  would  have 
remained  comparatively  isolated,  would  never  have  become  so 
widely  spread  as  it  did  among  the  peoples  and  races  of  antiquity. 
In  the  words  of  the  historian  Ranke,  "The  Greeks,  had  they 
remained  alone,  would  never  have  succeeded  in  winning  for  the 
intellectual  life  which  they  had  created  a  sure  footing  in  the  world 
at  large."  Greece  conquered  the  world  by  being  conquered.  It 
was  Hellenic  institutions,  customs,  and  manners,  the  Hellenic 
language  and  civilization,  which  the  extended  conquests  of  Alex- 
ander spread  throughout  the  Eastern  world.  It  is  this  which 
makes  the  short-lived  Macedonian  Empire  so  important  a  factor 
in  universal  history. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Demosthenes. 
Demosthenes,  Oration  on  the  Croivn,  297-306.  This  masterpiece  of 
Demosthenes  has  been  called  "  The  funeral  oration  of  extinct  Athenian 
and  Grecian  freedom."  In  these  passages  the  orator  points  out  the  cause 
of  his  country's  downfall. 

References  (Modern).  —  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  ix,  pp.  195-504. 
CuRTius,  vol.  V.  Holm,  vol.  iii,  chaps,  xiv-xix.  Wheeler,  Alexander 
the  Great,  chaps,  i  and  iv.  Hogarth,  Philip  and  Alexander  of  Macedon 
(first  part).  Bury,  History  of  Greece,  pp.  681-737.  Oman,  History  of 
Greece,  pp.  490-520.  Allcroft  and  Masom,  Decline  of  Hellas,  pp.  32-104. 
Timayenis,  vol.  ii,  pp.  38-91.  Mahaffy,  Problems  in  Greek  Histojy, 
chap,  vii,  "  Practical  Politics  in  the  Fourth  Century." 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Philip  II  and  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia 
compared.  2.  Imperialism  vs.  Home  Rule  ;  or.  Was  Demosthenes'  policy 
of  opposition  to  Philip  wise  ?  See  Mahaffy's  Problems.  3.  Phocion. 
4.  The  Macedonian  army.    See  Curteis.    5.  The  Philippics  of  Demosthenes. 

6  Mongol  or  Turanian  conquerors. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 
ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT 

(336-323    B.C.) 

285.  The  Youth  of  Alexander;  Formative  Influences.  —  Alex- 
ander was  only  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  came  to  his  father's 
throne.  Those  traits  of  temper  and  mind  which  marked  his  man- 
hood and  which  fitted  him  to  play  so  great  a  part  in  history  were 
foreshown  in  early  youth  —  if  we  may  believe  the  tales  that  are 
told  of  his  sayings  and  doings  as  a  boy.  The  familiar  story  of 
the  vicious  steed  Bucephalus,  which  none  dared  either  to  mount 
or  to  approach,  but  which  was  subdued  in  a  moment  by  the  skillful 
handling  of  the  little  prince,  reveals  that  subtle  magnetism  of  his 
nature  by  which  he  acquired  such  wonderful  influence  and  com- 
mand over  men  in  after  years.  The  spirit  of  the  man  is  again  shown 
in  the  complaint  of  the  boy  when  news  of  his  father's  victories 
came  to  him  :  "Boys,"  said  he  to  his  playmates,  "my  father  will 
get  ahead  of  us  in  everything,  and  will  leave  nothing  great  for 
you  or  me  to  do." 

Certain  influences  under  which  the  boy  came  in  his  earliest 
years  left  a  permanent  impress  upon  his  mind  and  character.  By 
his  mother  he  was  taught  to  trace  his  descent  from  the  great 
Achilles,  and  was  incited  to  emulate  his  exploits  and  to  make 
him  his  model  in  all  things.  The  Iliad,  which  recounts  the 
deeds  of  that  mythical  hero,  became  the  prince's  inseparable 
companion. 

After  his  mother's  influence,  perhaps  that  of  the  philosopher 
Aristotle,  whom  Philip  persuaded  to  become  the  tutor  of  the 
youthful  Alexander,  was  the  most  potent  and  formative.  This 
great  teacher  implanted  in  the  mind  of  the  young  prince  a  love 
of  literature  and  philosophy,  and  through  his  inspiring  companion- 
ship and  lofty  conversation  exercised  over  the  eager,  impulsive 

273 


274 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT 


boy  an  influence  for  good  which  Alexander  himself  gratefully- 
acknowledged  in  later  years. 

286.  Troubles  attending  the  Accession  of  Alexander.  —  For  about 
two  years  after  his  accession  to  the  Macedonian  throne,  Alexander 
was  kept  busy  in  thwarting  conspiracies  and  suppressing  open 
revolts  against  his  authority. 

While  the  young  king  was  campaigning  against  some  barbarian 

tribes  on  his  northern  frontier  a  report  was   spread  in  Greece 

that  he  was  dead.     The  Thebans  rose  in  revolt  and  called  upon 

the  Athenians  to  join  them.     Demosthenes  favored  the  appeal, 

and  began  to   stir  up  the  Athenians  and 

^  others  to  unite  with  the  Thebans  in  freeing 

the  Grecian  land  from  the  foreigners. 

But  Alexander  was  not  dead.  Before  the 
Greek  cities  had  settled  upon  any  plan 
of  concerted  action,  Alexander  with  his 
army  was  in  front  of  Thebes.  In  a  sharp 
battle  outside  the  gates  the  Thebans  were 
defeated  and  their  city  was  captured.  As 
a  warning  to  the  other  Greek  towns,  Alex- 
ander razed  the  city  to  the  ground,  spar- 
ing only  the  temples  and  the  house  of  the 
poet  Pindar,  and  sold  30,000  of  the  inhab- 
itants into  slavery.  Thus  was  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  renowned  of  the  cities  of 
Greece  wiped  out  of  existence. 

The  destruction  of  Thebes  produced  the  greatest  consternation 
throughout  Greece,  for  many  of  the  cities  were  implicated  in  the 
attempted  revolution  which  had  brought  that  city  to  ruin.  But 
having  meted  out  vengeance  to  Thebes,  Alexander  dealt  leniently 
with  the  other  towns  that  had  by  public  decrees  or  othenvise 
expressed  hostility  to  him,  and  simply  insisted  upon  the  surrender 
or  punishment  of  a  few  of  the  most  active  enemies  of  Macedonia. 

287.  Alexander  crosses  the  Hellespont ;  the  Battle  of  the 
Granicus  (334  B.C.).  —  Alexander  was  now  free  to  carry  out  his 
father's  scheme  in  regard  to  the  Asiatic  expedition.    In  the  spring 


Fig.  92. — Alexander 

THE  Great 
(Capitoline  Museum) 


THE    BATTLE    OF    ISSUS  275 

of  334  B.C.,  with  all  his  plans  matured,  he  set  out  at  the  head 
of  an  army  numbering  about  35,000  men  for  the  conquest  of  the 
Persian  Empire. 

Crossing  the  Hellespont,  Alexander  first  proceeded  to  the  plain 
of  ancient  Troy,  in  order  to  place  a  garland  upon  the  supposed 
tomb  at  that  place  of  his  mythical  ancestor  Achilles. 

Proceeding  on  his  march,  Alexander  met  a  Persian  army  on 
the  banks  of  the  Granicus,  over  which  he  gained  a  decisive 
victory.  Three  hundred  suits  of  armor,  selected  from  the  spoils 
of  the  field,  were  sent  as  a  votive  offering  to  the  temple  of 
Athena  at  Athens. 

The  victory  at  the  Granicus  laid  all  Asia  Minor  open  to  the 
invader,  and  soon  practically  all  of  its  cities  and  tribes  were 
brought  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  Macedonian.^ 

288.  The  Battle  of  Issus  (333  b.c).  —  At  the  northeast  corner 
of  the  Mediterranean  lies  the  plain  of  Issus.  Here  Alexander 
met  a  Persian  army,  numbering,  it  is  said,  600,000  men,  and 
inflicted  upon  it  an  overwhelming  defeat.  The  family  of  Darius,^ 
including  his  mother,  wife,  and  children,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Alexander;  but  the  king  himself  escaped  from  the  field,  and 
hastened  to  his  capital  Susa  to  raise  another  army  to  oppose 
the  march  of  the  conqueror. 

289.  The  Siege  of  Tyre  (332  b.c). — Before  penetrating  to  the 
heart  of  the  empire,  Alexander  turned  to  the  south,  in  order  to 
effect  the  subjugation  of  Phoenicia,  that  he  might  command  the 
Phoenician  fleets  and  prevent  their  being  used  either  to  sever  his 
communication  with  Greece  or  to  aid  revolts  in  the  cities  there 
against  his  authority.  The  island-city  of  Tyre,  after  a  memorable 
siege,  was  taken  by  means  of  a  mole,  or  causeway,  built  with 


1  At  Gordium,  in  Phrygia,  Alexander  performed  an  exploit  which  has  given  the 
world  one  of  its  favorite  apothegms.  In  the  temple  at  this  place  was  a  chariot  to 
the  pole  of  which  a  yoke  was  fastened  by  a  curiously  intricate  knot.  An  oracle  had 
been  spread  abroad  to  the  effect  that  whoever  should  untie  the  knot  would  become 
master  of  Asia.  Alexander  attempted  the  feat.  Unable  to  loosen  the  knot,  he  drew 
his  sword  and  cut  it.  Hence  the  phrase  "  cutting  the  Gordian  knot,"  —  meaning  a 
short  way  out  of  a  difficulty. 

2  Darius  III,  Codomannus  (336-330  B.C.). 


276  ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT 

incredible  labor  through  the  sea  to  the  city.  This  mole  was  con- 
structed out  of  the  ruins  of  old  Tyre  and  the  forests  of  Lebanon. 
It  still  remains,  uniting  the  rock  with  the  mainland. 

When  at  last,  with  the  aid  of  the  Sidonian  fleet,  the  city  was 
taken  after  a  siege  of  seven  months,  8000  of  the  inhabitants 
were  slain  and  30,000  sold  into  slavery,  —  a  terrible  warning  to 
those  cities  that  should  dare  to  close  their  gates  against  the 
Macedonian.  The  reduction  of  Tyre  has  been  pronounced  the 
greatest  miHtary  achievement  of  Alexander. 

After  the  fall  of  Tyre  the  cities  of  Palestine  and  Philistia,  with 
the  sole  exception  of  Gaza,  surrendered  at  once  to  the  conqueror. 
Gaza  resisted  stubbornly,  but  after  a  siege  of  three  months  was 
taken  and  its  inhabitants  were  sold  as  slaves.  Batis,  the  brave 
defender  of  the  place,  was  fastened  by  Alexander  to  a  chariot 
and  dragged  until  dead  round  the  walls  of  the  city.  This  was  in 
imitation  of  the  treatment  said  to  have  been  accorded  by  Achilles 
to  the  body  of  Hector  (sec.  130). 

290.  Alexander  in  Egypt. — With  the  cities  of  Phoenicia  and 
the  fleets  of  the  Mediterranean  subject  to  his  control,  Alexander 
easily  effected  the  reduction  of  Egypt.  The  Egyptians,  indeed, 
made  no  resistance  to  the  Macedonians,  but  wilHngly  exchanged 
masters. 

While  in  the  country,  Alexander  founded  at  one  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Nile  a  city  named  after  himself  Alexandria.  Ranke  declares 
this  to  have  been  the  "  first  city  in  the  world,  after  the  Pirseus 
at  Athens,  erected  expressly  for  purposes  of  commerce."  The 
city  became  the  meeting  place  of  the  East  and  West;  and  its 
importance  through  many  centuries  attests  the  farsighted  wisdom 
of  its  founder. 

A  less  worthy  enterprise  of  the  conqueror  was  his  expedition  to 
the  oasis  of  Siwah,  located  in  the  Libyan  desert,  where  were  a 
celebrated  temple  and  oracle  of  Zeus  Ammon.  To  gratify  his 
own  vanity,  as  well  as  to  impress  his  new  Oriental  subjects, 
Alexander  evidently  desired  to  be  declared  of  celestial  descent. 
The  priests  of  the  temple,  in  accordance  with  the  wish  of  the 
king,  gave  out  that  the  oracle  pronounced  Alexander  to  be  the 


THE  BATTLE  OF  ARBELA  2// 

son  of  Zeus  and  the  destined  ruler  of  the  world.  It  would  seem 
that  Alexander  was  quite  fully  persuaded  that,  hke  the  early 
Greek  heroes,  he  was  allied  to  the  race  of  the  gods. 

291.  The  Battle  of  Arbela  (331  B.C.).  —  From  Egypt  Alexander 
recommenced  his  march  towards  the  Persian  capital.  While  yet 
in  Phoenicia,  he  had  received  from  Darius  proposals  of  peace  and 
alliance.  The  Great  King  had  offered  a  large  ransom  for  his 
family,  and  a  surrender  of  all  the  provinces  of  his  empire  lying 
west  of  the  Euphrates,  but  Alexander  had  refused  to  make  peace 
even  on  such  terms.  "  There  cannot  be  two  suns  in  the  heavens," 
is  said  to  have  been  his  reply  to  the  proposal. 

Marching  through  Syria,  Alexander  directed  his  course  eastward 
and  crossed  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  without  opposition ;  but 
on  the  plains  of  Arbela,  not  far  from  the  ancient  Nineveh,  he  found 
his  farther  advance  disputed  by  Darius  with  an  immense  army, 
numbering,  if  we  may  rely  upon  our  authorities,  over  a  million 
men.  It  was  a  motley  host,  made  up  of  various  Asiatic  barba- 
rians, together  with  a  large  number  of  Greek  mercenaries.  Ele- 
phants and  scythe-armed  chariots  impressed  an  Oriental  stamp 
upon  the  vast  array. 

The  army  of  Alexander  amounted  to  only  about  47,000  foot 
and  horse.  But  discipline  counted  for  more  than  numbers.  In 
the  battle  which  was  soon  joined,  the  charge  of  the  Macedonian 
cavalry  and  phalanx  proved  irresistible,  and  the  vast  Persian  host 
was  overthrown  with  enormous  slaughter  and  scattered  in  flight. 
Darius  fled  from  the  field,  as  he  had  done  at  Issus,  and  sought 
safety  behind  the  walls  of  the  Median  capital  Ecbatana. 

The  battle  of  Arbela  was  one  of  the  decisive  combats  of  history. 
It  marked  the  end  of  the  long  struggle  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  between  Persia  and  Greece,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the 
spread  of  Hellenic  civilization  over  all  Western  Asia. 

292.  Alexander  at  Babylon,  Susa,  and  Persepolis.  —  From  the 
field  of  Arbela  Alexander  marched  south  to  Babylon,  which  opened 
its  gates  to  him  without  opposition.  To  win  the  favor  of  the 
Babylonians,  he  restored  the  temples  which  Xerxes  had  destroyed, 
and  offered  sacrifices  in  the  temple  of  Bel. 


2;8  ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT 

Susa  was  next  entered  by  the  conqueror.  Here  he  seized 
incredible  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  ($57,000,000  it  is  said), 
the  treasure  of  the  Great  King.  He  also  found  here  and  sent 
back  to  Athens  the  bronze  statues  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  ^ 
(sec.  187),  which  had  been  carried  off  by  Xerxes  at  the  time  of 
the  invasion  of  Greece. 

From  Susa  Alexander's  march  was  next  directed  to  Persepohs, 
where  he  secured  a  treasure  more  than  twice  as  great  ($138,000,- 
000  according  to  some)  as  that  found  at  Susa.  Upon  Persepohs 
Alexander  wreaked  vengeance  for  all  Greece  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  the  Persians.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  were  massacred 
and  others  sold  into  slavery,  while  the  palaces  of  the  Persian  kings 
were  given  to  the  flames.* 

Alexander  having  thus  overthrown  the  power  of  Darius  now 
began  to  regard  himself  not  only  as  his  conqueror  but  as  his  suc- 
cessor, and  was  thus  looked  upon  by  the  Persians.  He  assumed 
the  pomp  and  state  of  an  Oriental  monarch,  and  required  the 
most  obsequious  homage  from  all  who  approached  him.  His 
Greek  and  Macedonian  companions,  unused  to  paying  such  serv- 
ile adulation  to  their  king,  were  much  displeased  at  Alexander's 
conduct,  and  from  this  time  on  to  his  death  intrigues  and  con- 
spiracies were  being  constantly  formed  among  them  against  his 
power  and  life. 

293.  The  Pursuit  and  Death  of  Darius.  —  From  Persepohs 
Alexander  set  out  in  pursuit  of  Darius,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
escaped  from  the  field  at  Arbela  to  the  city  of  Ecbatana.  As 
the  Macedonians  approached  the  king  fled,  thinking  to  find  a 
safe  retreat  in  the  remote  northeastern  provinces  of  his  empire. 
But  as  Alexander  pressed  closely  after  the  fugitive,  one  of  the 
attendants  of  Darius,  a  general  named  Bessus,  treacherously 
stabbed  his  master,  and  left  him  in  a  dying  state  by  the  wayside. 
By  the  time  Alexander  reached  the  spot  the  king  was  dead. 
According  to  Plutarch,  Alexander  caused  the  body  to  be  sent  to 

3  So  Arrian,  iii.  i6.  Other  authorities,  however,  make  it  to  have  been  some 
successor  of  Alexander  who  returned  the  statues. 

4  Read  Dryden's  Alexander's  Feast. 


CONQUEST   OF   BACTRIA  AND    SOGDIANA        279 

the  aged  mother  of  Darius,   in  imitation  of  the   surrender  by 
Achilles  of  the  body  of  Hector  to  his  father  Priam. 

294.  Conquest  of  Bactria  and  Sogdiana  (329-328  b.c). — After 
the  death  of  Darius,  Alexander  led  his  army  towards  the  east, 
and,  after  subduing  many  tribes  that  dwelt  about  the  southern 
shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea  and  among  the  mountainous  regions 
of  what  is  now  known  as  Afghanistan,  boldly  conducted  his 
soldiers  over  the  snowy  and  dangerous  passes  of  the  Hindu  Kush, 
and  descended  into  the  province  of  Bactria.  After  the  reduction 
of  this  country,  Alexander  subdued  the  tribes  of  Sogdiana,  a  coun- 
try lying  still  farther  to  the  north. 

Throughout  these  remote  regions  Alexander  founded  numerous 
cities,  several  of  which  bore  his  own  name.  One  of  them  is  said 
to  have  been  built,  wall  and  houses,  in  twenty  days.  These  new 
cities  were  peopled  with  captives,  and  by  those  veterans  who, 
because  of  fatigue  or  wounds,  were  no  longer  able  to  follow  the 
conqueror  in  his  swift  campaigns. 

Alexander's  stay  in  Sogdiana  was  saddened  by  his  murder  of 
his  dearest  friend  CHtus,  who  had  saved  his  life  at  the  Granicus. 
Both  were  heated  with  wine  when  the  quarrel  arose ;  after  the 
deed  Alexander  was  overwhelmed  with  remorse.^ 

295.  Conquests  in  India. — With  the  countries  north  of  the 
Hindu  Kush  subdued  and  settled,  Alexander  recrossed  the  moun- 
tains and  led  his  army  down  into  the  rich  and  crowded  plains 
of  India  (327  B.C.).  Here  again  he  showed  himself  invincible, 
and  received  the  submission  of  many  of  the  native  princes  of  the 
country. 

Alexander's  desire  was  to  extend  his  conquests  to  the  Ganges, 
but  his  soldiers  began  to  murmur  because  of  the  length  and  hard- 
ness of  their  campaigns,  and  he  reluctantly  gave  up  the  under- 
taking. To  secure  the  conquests  already  made,  he  founded,  at 
different  points  in   the   valley  of  the  Indus,  Greek  towns  and 

5  The  Macedonian  kingdom  which  grew  out  of  the  conquests  of  Alexander  in 
Central  Asia  lasted  for  about  two  centuries  after  his  death.  Traditions  of  the  con- 
queror still  linger  in  the  land,  and  coins  and  plate  with  subjects  from  classic 
mythology  are  frequently  turned  up  at  the  present  day. 


280  ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT 

colonies.  One  of  these  he  named  Alexandria,  after  himself; 
another  Bucephala,  in  memory  of  his  favorite  steed ;  and  still 
another  Nicaea,  for  his  victories.  The  modern  museum  at  Lahore 
contains  many  relics  of  Greek  art  dug  up  on  the  site  of  these 
Macedonian  cities  and  camps. 

296.  Rediscovery  of  the  Sea  Route  from  the  Indus  to  the 
Euphrates.  —  It  was  Alexander's  next  care  to  bind  these  distant 
conquests  in  the  East  to  those  in  the  West.  To  do  this,  it  was 
of  the  first  importance  to  establish  water  communication  between 
India  and  Babylonia.  Now,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Greeks 
had  no  positive  knowledge  of  what  sea  the  Indus  emptied  into, 
and  only  a  vague  idea  that  there  was  a  water  way  from  the 
Indus  to  the  Euphrates.^  This  important  maritime  route,  once 
known  to  the  civilized  world,  had  been  lost,  and  needed  to  be 
rediscovered. 

So  the  conqueror  Alexander  now  turned  explorer.  He  sailed 
down  the  Indus  to  the  head  of  the  delta,  where  he  founded  a 
city  which  he  called  Alexandria.  This  was  to  be  to  the  trade 
of  India  what  Alexandria  upon  the  Nile  was  to  that  of  Egypt. 
With  this  new  commercial  city  established,  Alexander  sailed 
on  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  was  rejoiced  to  find 
himself  looking  out  upon  the  southern  ocean. 

He  now  dispatched  his  trusty  admiral  Nearchus  with  a  con- 
siderable fleet  to  explore  this  sea  and  to  determine  whether  it 
communicated  with  the  Euphrates.  He  himself,  with  the  larger 
part  of  the  army,  marched  westward  along  the  coast.  His  march 
thus  lay  through  the  ancient  Gedrosia,  now  Beluchistan,  a  region 
frightful  with  burning  deserts,  amidst  which  his  soldiers  endured 
almost  incredible  privations  and  sufferings. 

After  a  trying  and  calamitous  march  of  over  two  months 
Alexander,  with  the  survivors  of  his  army,  reached  Carmania. 
Here,  to  his  unbounded  joy,  he  was  joined  by  Nearchus,  who  had 


6  According  to  Arrian,  when  Alexander  reached  the  Indus  he  at  first  thought  that 
he  had  struck  the  upper  course  of  the  Nile.  The  presence  in  the  river  of  crocodiles 
like  those  in  Egypt  was  one  thing  that  led  him  to  this  conclusion  {Anabasis  of 
Alexander,  vi.  i). 


THE   PLANS   OF  ALEXANDER  281 

made  the  voyage  from  the  Indus  successfully,  and  thus  ''  rediscov- 
ered one  of  the  most  important  maritime  routes  of  the  world," 
the  knowledge  of  which  among  the  Western  nations  was  never 
again  to  be  lost. 

To  appropriately  celebrate  his  conquests  and  discoveries,  Alex- 
ander instituted  a  series  of  religious  festivals,  amidst  which  his 
soldiers  forgot  the  dangers  of  their  numberless  battles  and  the 
hardships  of  their  unparalleled  marches,  which  had  put  to  the  test 
every  power  of  human  endurance.  And  well  might  these  veterans 
glory  in  their  achievements.  In  a  few  years  they  had  conquered 
half  the  world  and  changed  the  whole  course  of  history. 

297.  The  Plans  of  Alexander ;  the  Hellenizing  of  the  World.  — 
As  the  capital  of  his  vast  empire,  which  now  stretched  from  the 
Ionian  Sea  to  the  Indus,  Alexander  chose  the  ancient  Babylon, 
upon  the  Euphrates.  He  proposed  to  make  this  old  Semitic 
city  the  center  of  his  domains  for  the  reason  that  such  a  loca- 
tion of  the  seat  of  government  would  help  to  promote  his  plans, 
which  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the  union  and  Hellenizing  of 
the  world.  Not  only  were  the  peoples  of  Asia  and  Europe  to 
be  blended  by  means  of  colonies,  but  even  the  floras  of  the  two 
continents  were  to  be  intermingled  by  the  transplanting  of  plants 
and  trees  from  one  continent  to  the  other.  Common  laws  and 
customs  and  a  common  language  were  to  unite  the  nations  into 
one  great  family.  Intermarriages  were  to  blend  the  races.  Alex- 
ander himself  married  a  daughter  of  Darius  HI,  and  also  another 
of  Artaxerxes  Ochus ;  to  ten  thousand  of  his  soldiers,  whom  he 
encouraged  to  take  Asiatic  wives,  he  gave  magnificent  gifts. 

298.  The  Mutiny  at  Opis  (324  B.C.).  — Not  all  the  old  soldiers 
of  Alexander  approved  of  his  plans  and  measures,  particularly 
since  in  these  magnificent  projects  they  seemed  to  be  relegated 
to  a  second  place.  His  Macedonian  veterans  were  especially 
greatly  displeased  that  he  should  enlist  in  his  service  effeminate 
Asiatics,  and  dress  and  equip  them  in  the  Macedonian  fashion. 
They  also  disapproved  of  Alexander's  action  in  wearing  the 
Persian  costume  and  surrounding  himself  with  Persian  attend- 
ants.    So  when  Alexander  proposed  to  send  back  to  Macedonia 


282  ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT 

the  aged  and  the  maimed  among  his  veterans,  the  soldiers  broke 
out  in  open  mutiny. 

Alexander  caused  the  instigators  of  the  sedition  to  be  executed, 
and  then  made  to  the  mutinous  soldiers  a  speech  such  as  they 
had  never  Hstened  to  before.  He  recalled  to  their  minds  how 
his  father  Philip  had  found  them  vagabond  shepherds  tending  a 
few  sheep  on  the  mountain-sides  in  Macedonia,  and  had  made 
them  conquerors  and  rulers  of  all  Thrace  and  Greece ;  and  how 
he  himself  had  made  them  conquerors  of  the  empire  of  the  Great 
King,  the  possessors  of  the  riches  of  the  world  and  the  envied 
of  all  mankind.'' 

By  these  words  the  mutinous  spirit  of  the  soldiers  was  com- 
pletely subdued,  and  with  every  expression  of  contrition  for  their 
fault  and  of  devotion  to  their  old  commander  they  begged  for 
forgiveness  and  reinstatement  in  his  favor.  Alexander  was  moved 
by  their  entreaties,  and  gave  them  assurances  that  they  were 
once  more  his  companions  and  kinsmen.  The  reconciliation 
was  celebrated  by  a  magnificent  banquet  in  which  more  than 
nine  thousand  participated.^ 

299.  The  Death  of  Alexander  (323  b.c).  — In  the  midst  of  his 
vast  projects  Alexander  was  seized  by  a  fever,  brought  on  doubt- 
less by  his  insane  excesses,  and  died  at  Babylon,  323  B.C.,  in  the 
thirty-second  year  of  his  age.  His  soldiers  could  not  let  him  die 
without  seeing  him.  The  watchers  of  the  palace  were  obliged  to 
open  the  doors  to  them,  and  the  veterans  of  a  hundred  battle- 
fields filed  sorrowfully  past  the  couch  of  their  dying  commander. 
His  body  was  carried  first  to  Memphis,  but  afterwards  to  Alex- 
andria, in  Egypt,  and  there  inclosed  in  a  golden  coffin,  over 
which  was  raised  a  splendid  mausoleum.  His  ambition  for  celes- 
tial honors  was  gratified  in  his  death ;  for  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere 

'  Arrian,  vii.  9,  10. 

8  It  was  soon  after  this  meeting  that  Alexander's  dearest  friend,  Hephaestion, 
died  at  Ecbatana.  Alexander  indulged  in  most  extravagant  expressions  of  grief 
He  caused  a  funeral  pyre  to  be  erected  at  a  cost,  it  is  said,  of  10,000  talents 
($12,000,000),  and  instituted  in  memory  of  his  friend  magnificent  funeral  games. 
He  even  ordered  the  tops  of  the  towers  of  the  surrounding  cities  to  be  cut  off,  and 
the  horses  and  mules  to  be  put  in  mourning  by  having  their  manes  docked. 


ALEXANDER'S   CHARACTER  283 

temples  were  dedicated  to  him,  and  divine  worship  was  paid  to 
his  statues. 

300.  His  Character.  —  We  must  not  pass  this  point  without  a  few 
words,  at  least,  respecting  the  character  of  this  remarkable  man, 
who,  in  a  brief  career  of  twelve  years,  changed  entirely  the  currents 
of  history,  forcing  them  into  channels  which  they  would  not  have 
followed  but  for  the  influence  of  his  Hfe  and  achievements. 

We  cannot  deny  to  Alexander,  in  addition  to  a  remarkable 
genius  for  military  affairs,  an  alert  and  comprehensive  intellect. 
The  wisdom  shown  by  him  in  the  selection  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt 
as  the  great  depot  of  the  exchanges  of  the  East  and  the  West  has 
been  amply  demonstrated  by  the  rare  fortunes  of  that  city.  His 
plan  for  the  union  of  Europe  and  Asia  and  the  fusion  of  their  dif- 
ferent races  might  indeed  seem  visionary  were  it  not  that  the  de- 
gree in  which  this  was  actually  realized  in  some  parts  of  his  empire 
during  subsequent  centuries  attests  the  sanity  of  the  attempt. 

Alexander  had  fine  tastes,  and  liberally  encouraged  art,  science, 
and  Hterature.  Praxiteles,  Lysippus,  and  Apelles^  had  in  him  a 
munificent  patron ;  and  to  his  preceptor  Aristotle  he  sent  large 
collections  of  natural-history  objects  gathered  in  his  extended 
expeditions.  He  had  an  impulsive,  kind,  and  generous  nature  : 
he  avenged  the  murder  of  his  enemy  Darius ;  and  he  repented  in 
bitter  tears  over  the  body  of  his  faithful  CHtus.  He  exposed  him- 
self like  the  commonest  soldier,  sharing  with  his  men  the  hard- 
ships of  the  march  and  the  dangers  of  the  battlefield. 

But  Alexander  was,  even  judged  by  the  moral  requirements  of 
his  own  time,  a  man  of  many  faults.  He  indulged  in  shameful 
excesses,  and  gave  way  to  outbreaks  of  passion  that  transformed  a 
usually  mild  and  generous  disposition  into  the  fury  of  a  madman. 
The  vindictive  cruelty  that  he  sometimes  manifested  in  his  treat- 
ment of  prisoners  can  be  only  partially  extenuated  by  a  reference 
to  the  usages  and  the  standard  of  humanity  of  the  age.  The  con- 
tradictions of  his  Hfe  cannot,  perhaps,  be  better  expressed  than 
in  the  words  once  applied  to  the  gifted  Themistocles  :  "He  was 
greater  in  genius  than  in  character." 

9  For  something  concerning  these  artists,  see  sees.  322  and  327. 


284 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT 


301.  Results  of  Alexander's  Conquests.  — The  remarkable  con- 
quests of  Alexander  had  far-reaching  consequences.  First,  they 
ended  the  long  struggle  between  Persia  and  Greece,  and  spread 
Hellenic  civilization  over  Egypt  and  Western  Asia.^*' 

Second,  the  distinction  between  Greek  and  barbarian  was  oblit- 
erated, and  the  sympathies  of  men,  hitherto  so  narrow  and  local, 
were  widened,  and  thus  an  important  preparation  was  made  for 
the  reception  of  the  cosmopolitan  creed  of  Christianity. 


Fig.  93.  — The  So-Called  "Sarcophagus  of  Alexander" 
The  finest  of  sixteen  sarcophagi  found  at  Sidon  in  1887 

Third,  the  world  was  given  a  universal  language  of  culture,  which 
was  a  further  preparation  for  the  spread  of  Christian  teachings. 

Fourth,  the  sea  route  from  India  to  Europe  was  rediscovered. 
This  the  historian  Ranke,  regarding  its  influence  upon  trade  and 
commerce,  views  as  one  of  the  most  important  results  of  Alex- 
ander's expedition. 

10  It  was  rather  the  outer  forms  than  the  real  inner  Ufe  and  spirit  of  the  old  Greek 
civilization  which  were  adopted  by  the  non-Hellenic  peoples  of  Egypt  and  Western 
Asia.  Hence  the  resulting  culture  is  given  a  special  name.  "  This  civilization, 
Greek  in  its  general  character,  but  pervading  people  not  exclusively  Greek  by  race, 
is  properly  called  Hellenism,  which  means  — not  'being  Hellenes,'  or  Greeks,  but  — 
'doing  like  Hellenes';  and  as  the  adjective  answering  to  Hellas  is  Hellenic,  so  the 
adjective  answering  to  Hellenism  \^  HelUnisHcP  —  ]^^^,  Greek  Literature,  p.  138. 


REFERENCES  285 

But  the  evil  effects  of  these  conquests  were  also  positive  and  far- 
reaching.  The  sudden  acquisition  by  the  Greeks  of  the  enormous 
wealth  of  the  Persian  Empire,  and  contact  with  the  vices  and  the 
effeminate  luxury  of  the  Oriental  nations,  had  a  most  demoral- 
izing effect  upon  Hellenic  life.  Greece  became  corrupt,  and 
she  in  turn  corrupted  Rome.  Thus  the  civihzation  of  classical 
antiquity  was  undermined. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Alexander.  Arrian, 
Anabasis  of  Alexander,  vii.  9,  Alexander's  speech  to  his  soldiers  reminding 
them  of  the  debt  they  owe  to  his  father ;  and  vii.  28-30,  for  an  estimate  of 
Alexander's  character. 

References  (Modern).  — Wheeler,  Alexander  the  Great ;  affords  a  most 
interesting  and  scholarly  treatment  of  our  subject.  Dodge,  Alexander. 
Hogarth,  Philip  and  Alexander  of  Macedon  (last  part).  Budge,  The  Life 
and  Exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Mahaffy,  Survey  of  Greek  Civili- 
zation, chap,  viii ;  The  Story  of  Alexander'' s  Empire  and  Greek  Life  and 
Thought,  chap.  ii.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  ix,  pp.  505-549 ;  vol.  x, 
pp.  1-112.  Holm,  vol.  iii,  chaps,  xx-xxvii.  Timayenis,  vol.  ii,  pp.  91- 
148.  Allcroft  and  Masom,  Decline  of  Hellas,  pp.  105-161.  Bury,  His- 
tory of  Greece,  pp.  738-836.  Curteis,  Rise  of  the  Macedonian  Empire. 
Freeman,  Historical  Essays  (Second  Series),  "Alexander." 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  Different  civilizations  in  the  Persian 
Empire.  2.  Alexander  as  a  god.  Bring  this  into  harmony  with  the  ideas 
of  the  time,  both  in  Greece  and  in  Egypt.  This  is  a  subject  for  mature 
students.  3.  Influence  of  Alexander's  conquests  upon  civilization.  4.  "On 
the  Persian  system  of  government  by  territorial  division  was  ingrafted  the 
Greek  system  of  government  by  city-communities  "  (Wheeler).  Discuss 
this.  5.  Alexander's  letter  to  Darius.  See  Bury.  6.  Alexander  as  a 
general. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  GRiECO-ORIENTAL  WORLD  FROM  THE  DEATH  OF 

ALEXANDER  TO  THE  CONQUEST  OF  GREECE 

BY  THE  ROMANS 

(323-146  B.C.) 

302.  Partition  of  Alexander's  Empire.  — There  was  no  one  who 
could  wield  the  sword  that  fell  from  the  hand  of  Alexander.  It  is 
said  that,  when  dying,  being  asked  to  whom  the  kingdom  should 
belong,  he  replied,  "  To  the  strongest,"  and  handed  his  signet  ring 
to  his  general  Perdiccas.  But  Perdiccas  was  not  strong  enough 
to  master  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.^  Indeed,  who  is  strong 
enough  to  rule  the  world? 

Consequently  the  vast  empire  created  by  Alexander's  unpar- 
alleled conquests  was  distracted  by  the  wranglings  and  wars  of 
his  successors,  and  before  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  B.C. 
had  become  broken  into  many  fragments.^    Besides  minor  states,' 

1  Perdiccas,  in  conjunction  with  his  brother  generals,  ruled  at  first  as  regent  for 
Philip  Arrhid^Eus,  an  illegitimate  brother  of  Alexander,  who  was  proclaimed  titular 
king.  Later  the  government  was  administered  in  the  name  of  Arrhidaeus  and 
Alexander  the  Younger,  a  posthumous  son  of  Alexander.  This  son  was  murdered 
some  years  later  by  Cassander,  the  ruler  of  Macedonia. 

2  The  most  important  of  the  battles  of  this  psriod  was  the  battle  of  Ipsus,  in 
Phrygia,  301  B.C. 

3  Of  these  lesser  states  the  following  should  be  noted : 

a.  Rhodes.  — The  city  of  Rhodes,  on  the  island  of  the  same  name,  became  the 
head  of  a  federation  of  adjacent  island  and  coast  cities,  and  thus  laid  the  basis  of 
a  remarkable  commercial  prosperity  and  naval  power.  It  was  one  of  the  chief  centers 
of  Hellenistic  culture,  and  acquired  a  wide  fame  through  its  schools  of  art  and  rhetoric. 
Julius  Csesar  and  Cicero  both  studied  here  under  Rhodian  teachers  of  oratory. 

b.  Pontus.  —  Pontus  (Greek  for  sea),  a  state  of  Asia  Minor,  was  so  called  from 
its  position  upon  the  Euxine.  It  was  never  thoroughly  conquered  by  the  Macedo- 
nians. It  has  a  place  in  history  mainly  because  of  the  luster  shed  upon  it  by  the 
transcendent  ability  of  one  of  its  kings,  Mithradates  the  Great  (120-63  B.C.),  who 
spread  the  fame  of  the  little  kingdom  throughout  the  world  by  his  able,  and  for  a 
long  time  successful,  resistance  to  the  Roman  arms. 

286 


MACEDONIA  287 

four  monarchies  rose  out  of  the  ruins.  Their  rulers  were  Cassan- 
der,  Lysimachus,  Seleucus  Nicator,  and  Ptolemy,  who  had  each 
assumed  the  title  of  king.  The  great  horn  was  broken,  and  instead 
of  it  came  up  four  notable  ones  toward  the  four  winds  of  heaven.^ 

Cassander  governed  Macedonia,  and  claimed  authority  over 
Greece ;  Lysimachus  held  Thrace  and  the  western  part  of  Asia 
Minor ;  Seleucus  Nicator  ruled  Syria  and  the  countries  eastward 
to  the  Indus ;  and  Ptolemy  held  sway  over  Egypt. 

The  kingdom  of  Lysimachus  soon  disappeared.  The  other 
monarchies  were  longer  lived,  but  all  were  finally  overwhelmed  by 
the  now  rapidly  rising  power  of  Rome.  In  the  following  para- 
graphs we  will  trace  in  brief  outline  the  fortunes  of  each,  so  long 
as  they  remained  independent  states. 

303.  Macedonia  (323-146  b.c). — The  story  of  Macedonia 
from  the  death  of  Alexander  on  to  the  conquest  of  the  country 
by  the  Romans  is  made  up  largely  of  the  quarrels  and  crimes 
of  rival  aspirants  for  the  crown  that  Philip  and  Alexander  had 
worn.  During  a  great  part  of  the  period  the  successive  Mace- 
donian kings  were  exercising  or  attempting  to  exercise  authority 
over  the  cities  of  Greece.  Respecting  the  extent  of  their  power 
or  influence  in  the  peninsula  we  shall  find  it  more  convenient 
to  speak  in  the  following  section. 

Macedonia  was  one  of  the  first  countries  east  of  the  Adriatic 
to  come  in  hostile  contact  with  the  great  military  republic  of  the 
West.  After  much  intrigue  and  a  series  of  wars,  the  country 
was  finally  brought  into  subjection  to  the  Italian  power  and 
made  into  a  Roman  province*  (146  b.c). 

304.  Greece :  the  Celtic  Invasion ;  the  Achaean  and  ^tolian 
Leagues.  —  From  the  subjection  of  Greece  by  Philip  of  Macedon 
to  the  absorption  of  Macedonia  into  the  growing  dominions  of 
Rome,  the  Greek  cities  of  the  peninsula  were,  as  we  have  said, 
much  of  the  time  at  least  under  the  real  or  nominal  suzerainty 
of  the  Macedonian  kings.  But  the  Greeks  were  never  made  for 
royal  subjects,  and  consequently  they  were  in  a  state  of  chronic 
revolt  against  this  foreign  authority. 

4  Daniel,  viii.  8.        5  See  sees.  451,  453  of  the  Ancient  History  (revised  ed.). 


288 


THE   GRi^CO-ORIENTAL   WORLD 


Thus,  no  sooner  had  they  heard  of  the  death  of  Alexander 
than  several  of  the  Grecian  states  rose  against  the  Macedonian 
general  Antipater,  and  carried  on  with  him  what  is  known  as 
the  Lamian  War  (323-321  B.C.).  The  struggle  ended  disastrously 
for  the  Greeks,  and  Demosthenes,  who  had  been  the  soul  of  the 
movement,  to  escape  falling  into  the  hands  of  Antipater,  put  an 
end  to  his  own  Hfe  by  means  of  poison. 

The  next  matter  of  moment  in  the  history  of  Greece  was  an 
invasion  of  the  Gauls  (278  b.c),  kinsmen  of  the  Celtic  tribes 
that  about  a  century  before  this  time  had  sacked  the  city  of 
Rome.    These  terrible  marauders,  pouring  down  from  the  north, 


r,^-r:^^:^^^^^'ZZ]. 


Fig.  94,  —  The  Dying  Gaul.     (Capitoline  Museum) 
A  memorial  of  the  Gallic  invasion  of  Greece  in  the  third  century  b.c. 

ravaged  Greece  as  far  south  as  Delphi  and  the  Pass  of  Ther- 
mopylae. If  we  may  believe  the  Greek  accounts,  they  met  with 
heroic  resistance  and  were  driven  back  with  great  loss.  A  Httle 
later  some  of  the  tribes  settled  in  Asia  Minor  and  there  gave 
name  to  the  province  of  Galatia.^  The  celebrated  Greek  sculp- 
ture, the  Dying  Gaul,  is  a  most  interesting  memorial  of  this 
episode  in  Greek  history  (Fig.  94). 

In  the  third  century  B.C.  there  arose  in  Greece  two  important 
confederacies,  known  as  the  Achaean  and  ^tolian  leagues,  whose 
history  embraces  almost  every  matter  of  interest  and  instruction 

6  It  was  to  these  people  that  St.  Paul  addressed  one  of  his  epistles.  See  his 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians. 


THE  ACH^AN  AND   ^TOLIAN   LEAGUES        289 

in  the  later  political  life  of  the  Greek  cities."^  These  late  attempts 
at  federation  among  the  Grecian  cities  were  one  expression  of 
that  tendency  towards  nationalism  that  marks  this  period  of 
Greek  history.  They  were  fostered  by  the  intense  desire  of  all 
patriotic  Hellenes  to  free  themselves  from  the  hated  arbitership 
of  Macedonia.  The  Greeks  had  learned  at  last  —  but  unhap- 
pily too  late  —  that  the  liberty  they  prized  so  highly  could  be 
maintained  only  through  union. 

The  Achaean  League  (281-146  b.c.)  was  in  its  beginnings 
simply  a  revival  of  a  very  ancient  religious  union  of  the  cities 
of  Achsea,  but  it  came  finally  to  embrace  all  the  states  of  the 
Peloponnesus  as  well  as  some  cities  beyond  its  limits.  It  was 
one  of  the  most  successful  efforts  ever  made  to  unite  the  Greek 
cities  into  a  real  federal  state  in  which  all  the  members  should 
enjoy  perfect  equality  of  rights  and  privileges.^ 

The  ^tolian  League,  established  about  280  b.c,  was  composed 
not  of  cities  but  of  tribes,  —  chiefly  the  half-civilized  tribes  of 
the  mountainous  regions  of  Central  Greece.  Its  chieftains  dis- 
played Httle  of  the  statesmanship  evinced  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Achaean  League,  and  it  never  became  prominent  in  Greek  affairs 
save  from  a  mihtary  point  of  view. 

Both  of  the  leagues  were  broken  up  by  Rome.  In  the  year 
146  B.C.  Corinth,  the  most  splendid  city  at  this  time  of  all  Greece, 
and  the  most  important  member  of  the  Achaean  League,  was 
taken  by  the  Romans,  the  men  were  killed,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren sold  into  slavery,  the  rich  art  treasures  of  the  city  sent 
as  trophies  to  Rome,  and  its  temples  and  other  buildings  given 
to  the  flames.  This  was  the  last  act  in  the  long  and  varied 
drama  of  the  pohtical  life  of  ancient  Greece.  Henceforth  it 
constituted  simply  a  portion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  bore 
the  name  of  Achaea.  / 

?■  For  a  study  of  these  confederations,  the  first  of  whicl/was  very  much  like  our  own 
federal  union,  consult  Freeman's  work  entitled  Histor^/of  Federal  Constitid'wns. 

8  The  chief  promoters  of  the  movement  were  Arflus  (271-213  B.C.)  and  Philo- 
poemen  (about  252-183  B.C.),  both  of  whom  were  trusted  generals  of  the  league  and 
men  of  eminent  ability  and  enlightened  patriotism.  Pausanias  calls  Philopoemen 
"  the  last  of  the  Greeks." 


290  THE   GR^CO-ORIENTAL  WORLD 

305.  Syria,  or  the  Kingdom  of  the  Seleucidae  (312-65  B.C.).  — 
This  kingdom,  during  the  two  centuries  and  more  of  its  existence, 
played  an  important  part  in  the  civil  history  of  the  world.  Under 
its  first  king  it  comprised  nominally  almost  all  the  countries  of  Asia 
conquered  by  Alexander,  thus  stretching  from  the  Hellespont  to 
the  Indus ;  but  in  reaUty  the  monarchy  embraced  only  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  and  the  old  Assyria  and  Babylonia.  Its  rulers  were  called 
Seleucidse,  from  the  founder  of  the  kingdom,  Seleucus  Nicator. 

Seleucus  Nicator  (312-281  B.C.),  besides  being  a  ruler  of  unu- 
sual abiHty,  was  a  most  liberal  patron  of  learning  and  art.  He  is 
declared  to  have  been  "  the  greatest  founder  of  cities  that  ever 
lived."  Throughout  his  dominions  he  founded  a  vast  number, 
some  of  which  endured  for  many  centuries,  and  were  known  far 
and  wide  as  homes  and  centers  of  Hellenistic  civihzation. 

Antioch  on  the  Orontes,  in  Northern  Syria,  became  after  Seleu- 
cia  on  the  Tigris  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  and  obtained  an  in- 
fluence and  renown  as  a  center  of  population  and  trade  which 
have  given  its  name  a  sure  place  in  history. 

This  colonization  of  Western  Asia  by  Greeks  was,  as  has  already 
been  remarked,  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  results  of  the  Gra^co- 
Macedonian  conquests.  The  founding  of  all  these  cities,  however, 
as  the  historian  Ranke  observes,  "must  not  be  reckoned  solely 
to  the  credit  of  Seleucus  and  Alexander.  Their  origin  was 
closely  connected  with  the  main  tendencies  of  Greek  coloniza- 
tion. The  Greeks  had  struggled  long  and  often  to  penetrate  into 
Asia,  but  so  long  as  the  Persian  Empire  remained  supreme  they 
were  energetically  repulsed,  and  it  was  only  as  mercenaries  that 
they  found  admittance.  This  bar  was  now  removed.  Released 
from  all  restrictions  and  attracted  by  the  revolution  in  pohtics,  the 
Greeks  now  streamed  into  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt." 

The  successors  of  Seleucus  Nicator  led  the  kingdom  through 
checkered  fortunes.  On  different  sides  provinces  fell  away  and 
became  independent  states.^    Antiochus  III  (223-187  B.C.),  called 

9  The  most  important  of  these  were  the  following : 

a.  Pergamum.  —  This  was  a  state  in  Western  Asia  Minor  which  became  inde- 
pendent upon  the  death  of  Seleucus  Nicator  (281  B.C.).     Under  the  patronage  of 


KINGDOM  OF  THE   PTOLEMIES   IN  EGYPT        291 

"  the  Great,"  raised  the  kingdom  for  a  short  time  into  great  prom- 
inence ;  but  through  attempting  to  make  conquests  in  Europe, 
and  further  through  giving  asylum  to  the  Carthaginian  general 
Hannibal,  he  incurred  the  fatal  hostility  of  Rome.  Quickly  driven 
by  the  Roman  legions  across  the  Hellespont,  he  was  hopelessly 
defeated  at  the  battle  of  Magnesia  (190  B.C.).  After  this  battle 
the  Syrian  kingdom  was  of  very  little  importance  in  the  world's 
affairs.  At  last,  brought  again  into  coUision  with  Rome,  the  coun- 
try was  overrun  by  Pompey  the  Great  and  became  a  part  of  the 
Roman  Republic ^^  (63  B.C.). 

306.  Kingdom  of  the  Ptolemies  in  Egypt  (323-30  B.C.).  —  The 
Graeco-Egyptian  empire  of  the  Ptolemies  was  by  far  the  most 
important,  in  its  influence  upon  the  civilization  of  the  world,  of  all 
the  kingdoms  that  owed  their  origin  to  the  conquests  of  Alexander. 
The  founder  of  the  house  and  dynasty  was  Ptolemy  I,  surnamed 
Soter  (323-283  B.C.).  Ptolemy  was  a  general  under  Alexander, 
and  seemed  to  possess  much  of  his  great  commander's  ability  and 
restless  energy,  with  a  happy  freedom  from  his  worst  faults. 

Upon  the  partition  of  the  empire  of  Alexander,  Ptolemy  had 
received  Egypt,  with  parts  of  Arabia  and  Libya.  To  these  he 
added  by  conquest  Coele-Syria,  Phoenicia,  Palestine,  Gyrene,  and 
Cyprus.  Following  the  usage  of  the  time,  he  transported  a  hun- 
dred thousand  Jews  from  Jerusalem  to  Alexandria,  attached  them 
to  his  person  and  policies  by  wise  and  conciliatory  measures,  and 
thus  effected,  in  such  measure  as  was  possible,  at  this  great  capital 
of  the  Nile,  that  fusion  of  the  races  of  the  East  and  the  West 
which  was  the  dream  of  Alexander. 

the  Romans  it  gradually  grew  into  a  powerful  kingdom.  Its  capital,  also  called 
Pergamum,  became  a  most  noted  center  of  Greek  learning  and  civilization,  and 
through  its  great  library  and  university  gained  the  renown  of  being,  next  to  Alexan- 
dria in  Egypt,  the  greatest  city  of  the  Hellenistic  world.  Parchment  (it  is  worth 
noting  that  this  word  is  derived  from  Pergamum)  was  here  first  extensively  used 
for  books  in  place  of  the  Egyptian  papyrus,  the  exportation  of  which  the  rulers  of 
Egypt  at  this  time  forbade. 

b.  Parthia.  —  Parthia  was  a  powerful  non-Aryan  state  that  grew  up  east  of  the 
Euphrates  in  the  lands  that  formed  the  heart  and  center  of  the  old  Persian  Empire 
(from  about  255  B.C.  to  226  a.d.).  Its  kings  were  at  first  formidable  enemies  of  the 
rulers  of  Syria,  and  later  of  the  Romans. 

10  Compare  sees.  452,  484  of  the  Ancient  History  (revised  ed.). 


292  THE   GR^CO-ORIENTAL   WORLD 

Under  Ptolemy,  Alexandria  became  the  great  depot  of  exchange 
for  the  productions  of  the  world.  At  the  entrance  of  the  harbor 
stood  the  Pharos,  or  Hghthouse,  —  the  first  structure  of  its  kind, 
—  which  Ptolemy  built  to  guide  the  fleets  of  the  world  to  his 
capital.     This  edifice  was  reckoned  one  of  the  Seven  Wonders. 

But  it  was  not  alone  the  exchange  of  material  products  that 
was  comprehended  in  Ptolemy's  scheme.  His  aim  was  to  make 
his  capital  the  intellectual  center  of  the  world,  —  the  place  where 
the  arts,  sciences,  literatures,  and  even  the  religions  of  the  world 
should  meet  and  mingle.  He  founded  the  famous  Museum,^^  a 
sort  of  college,  which  became  the  "  University  of  the  East,"  and 
established  the  renowned  Alexandrian  Library.  He  encouraged 
poets,  artists,  philosophers,  and  teachers  in  all  departments  of 
learning  to  settle  in  Alexandria  by  conferring  upon  them  immu- 
nities and  privileges,  and  by  gifts  and  a  munificent  patronage. 
His  court  embraced  the  learning  and  genius  of  the  age. 

Ptolemy  Philadelphus  (283-247  B.C.)  followed  closely  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  father,  carrying  out  as  far  as  possible  the  plans 
and  policies  of  the  preceding  reign.  He  added  largely  to  the 
royal  Hbrary,  and  extended  to  scholars  the  same  liberal  patronage 
that  his  father  had  before  him.  It  was  under  his  direction  that 
the  important  translation  into  Greek  of  the  old  Hebrew  Testament 
was  made  (sec.  345). 

Altogether  the  Ptolemies  reigned  in  Egypt  almost  exactly  three 
centuries  (323-30  B.C.).  The  rulers  who  held  the  throne  for  the 
last  two  hundred  years  were,  with  few  exceptions,  a  succession  of 
monsters,  such  as  even  Rome  in  her  worst  days  could  scarcely 
equal.  The  story  of  the  beautiful  but  dissolute  Cleopatra,  the 
last  of  the  house  of  the  Ptolemies,  belongs  properly  to  the  history 
of  Rome,  which  city  was  now  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Orient.  In  the  year  30  B.C.,  the  year  which  marks  the  death  of 
Cleopatra,  Egypt  was  made  a  Roman  province. 

307.  Conclusion. — We  have  now  traced  the  poHtical  fortunes 
of  the  Greek  race  through  about  six  centuries  of  authentic  history. 

11  "  The  Museum  was  the  first  example  of  a  permanent  institution  for  the  cultivation 
of  pure  science  founded  by  a  government;  that  was  something  great"  (Holm). 


REFERENCES 


293 


In  succeeding  chapters,  in  order  to  render  more  complete  the 
picture  we  have  endeavored  to  draw  of  ancient  Hellas,  we  shall 
add  some  details  respecting  Hellenic  art,  literature,  philosophy, 
and  society,  —  details  which  could  not  well  have  been  introduced 
in  the  foregoing  chapters  without  interrupting  the  movement  of 
the  narrative.  Even  a  short  study  of  these  matters  will  help  us  to 
form  a  more  adequate  conception  of  that  wonderful,  many-sided 
genius  of  the  Hellenic  race  which  enabled  Hellas,  *'  captured,  to 
lead  captive  her  captor." 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plutarch,  Life  of  Philopcemen  and 
Life  of  Aratus. 

References  (Modern).  —  Holm,  vol.  iv;  the  best  history  m  Enghsh  of 
the  period.  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  x,  pp.  213-326.  Gardner,  A^eio 
Chapters  in  Greek  History,  chap,  xv,  "  The  Successors  of  Alexander  and 
Greek  Civilization  in  the  East."  Mahaffy,  The  Story  of  Alexander's 
Empire  ;  Greek  Life  and  Thought  from  the  Age  of  Alexander  to  the  Roman 
Conquest ;  and  A  Survey  of  Greek  Civilization,  chaps,  viii  and  ix.  Green- 
IDGE,  Handbook  of  Greek  Constitutional  History,  chap.  vii.  Freeman, 
History  of  Federal  Government,  chaps,  v-ix,  gives  with  great  fullness  the 
history  of  the  Achaean  League ;  and  Periods  of  European  History  (first 
lecture).  Sayce,  The  Religions  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  lect.  x, 
"  The  Place  of  the  Egyptian  Religion  in  the  History  of  Theology."  David- 
son, The  Education  of  the  Greek  People,  chap,  viii,  "  Greek  Education  in 
Contact  with  the  Great  Eastern  World."  Draper,  Intellectual  Develop- 
ment of  Etcrope ;  has  an  account  of  the  Alexandrian  Museum. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  The  Museum  and  Library  at  Alexandria. 
2.  The  Achaean  League.  See  Free7nan  and  Greenidge.  3.  "  Hellenism  and 
the  fate  of  the  Greek  Constitution."  See  Greenidge,  chap.  viii.  4.  Daphne 
at  Antioch.     5.  Rhodes  as  a  center  of  Hellenistic  culture.     See  Hobn. 


Fig.  95.  —  Coin  of  Athens.    (Third  century  B.C.) 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 
GREEK  ARCHITECTURE,  SCULPTURE,  AND  PAINTING 

308.  Introductory:  the  Greek  Sense  of  Beauty. — The  Greeks 
were  artists  by  nature.  Everything  they  made,  from  the  shrines 
for  their  gods  to  the  meanest  utensils  of  domestic  use,  was  beau- 
tiful. <' Ugliness  gave  them  pain  hke  a  blow."  Beauty  they  placed 
next  to  holiness ;  indeed,  they  almost  or  quite  made  beauty  and 
goodness  the  same  thing.  It  is  said  that  it  was  noted  by  the 
Greeks  as  something  strange  and  exceptional  that  Socrates  was 
good,  notwithstanding  he  was  ugly  in  feature. 

The  ■  first  maxim  in  Greek  art  was  the  same  as  that  which 
formed  the  first  principle  in  Greek  morality  —  "Nothing  in 
excess."  The  Greek  eye  was  ofi'ended  at  any  exaggeration  of 
parts,  at  any  lack  of  symmetry  or  proportion  in  an  object.  The 
proportions  of  the  Greek  temple  are  perfect.  Any  deviations  from 
the  canons  of  the  Greek  artists  are  found  to  be  departures  from 
the  ideal. 

Clearness  of  outline  was  another  requirement  of  Greek  taste. 
The  aesthetic  Greek  had  a  positive  dislike  of  all  vagueness  or  indis- 
tinctness of  form.  Contrast  the  clear-cut  lines  of  a  Greek  temple 
with  the  vague,  vanishing  lines  of  a  mediaeval  Gothic  cathedral. 

It  is  possible  that  Nature  herself  taught  the  Greeks  these  first 
principles  of  their  art.  Nature  in  Greece  never  goes  to  extremes. 
The  mountains  and  islands  are  never  overlarge.  The  climate  is 
rarely  excessively  cold  or  oppressively  hot.  And  Nature  here 
seems  to  abhor  vagueness.  The  singular  transparency  of  the 
atmosphere,  especially  that  of  Attica,  lends  a  remarkable  clear- 
ness of  outline  to  every  object.  The  Parthenon  in  its  clear-cut 
features  seems  modeled  after  the  hills  that  lie  with  such  absolute 
clearness  of  form  against  the  Attic  sky. 

294 


ORDERS  OF  GREEK  ARCHITECTURE 


295 


I.   Architecture 

309.  Orders  of  Greek  Architecture.  —  By  the  close  of  the  sixth 
century  Greek  architecture  had  made  considerable  advance  and 
presented  three  distinct  styles  or  orders.  These  are  known  as 
the  Doric,  the  Ionic,  and  the  Corinthian  (Fig.  96).  They  are 
distinguished  from  one  another  chiefly  by  differences  in  the  pro- 
portions and  ornamentation  of  the  column. 

The  Doric  column  is  without  a  base  and  has  a  perfectly  plain 
capital.     At  first  the  Doric  temples  of  the  Greeks  were  almost  as 


^_^,§P^^ 


Doric  Ionic 

Fig.  96. —  Orders  of  Greek  Architecture 

massive  as  those  of  the  Egyptian  builders,  but  gradually  they  grew 
less  heavy  as  they  became  permeated  with  the  freer  Greek  spirit. 

The  Ionic  column  is  characterized  by  the  spiral  volutes  of  the 
capital.  This  form  was  principally  employed  by  the  Greeks  of 
Ionia,  whence  its  name. 

The  Corinthian  order  is  distinguished  by  its  rich  capital,  formed 
of  acanthus  leaves.  The  addition  of  the  acanthus  leaves  is  said 
to  have  been  suggested  to  the  artist  Callimachus  by  the  pretty 
effect  of  a  basket  surrounded  by  the  leaves  of  an  acanthus  plant, 
upon  which  it  had  accidentally  fallen.  This  order  was  not  much 
employed  in  Greece  before  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great. 


296      GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND   SCULPTURE 

The  entire  structure  was  made  to  harmonize  with  its  supporting 
columns.  The  general  characteristics  of  the  orders  are  happily 
suggested  by  the  terms  we  use  when  we  speak  of  the  "  severe  " 
Doric,  the  "graceful"  Ionic,  and  the  "ornate"  Corinthian. 

Speaking  of  the  place  which  these  styles  held  in  Greek  archi- 
tecture and  have  held  in  that  of  the  world  since  Greek  times,  an 
eminent  authority  says,  "  We  may  admit  that  the  invention  and 
perfecting  of  these  orders  of  Greek  architecture  has  been  (with 
one  exception — the  introduction  of  the  arch)  the  most  important 
event  in  the  architectural  history  of  the  world." 

310.  Greek  Architecture  chiefly  Sacred ;  Early  Greek  Temples. 
—  Religion  was  the  very  breath  of  Greek  architecture.  It  was 
religious  feeling  which  created  the  noblest  monuments  of  the 
architectural  genius  of  Hellas.^  Hence  in  the  few  words  which 
we  shall  have  to  say  respecting  Greek  architecture  our  attention 
will  be  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  temples  of  Greece. 

In  the  earliest  times  the  Greeks  had  no  temples  save  the 
forests.  The  statues  of  the  gods  were  first  placed  beneath  the 
shelter  of  a  tree  or  within  its  hollow  trunk.  After  a  time  a  build- 
ing rudely  constructed  of  the  trunks  of  trees  and  shaped  like  the 
habitations  of  men  marked  the  first  step  in  advance.  Then 
stone  took  the  place  of  the  wooden  frame.  With  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  durable  material  the  artist  was  encouraged  to  expend 
more  labor  and  care  upon  his  work.  At  the  same  time  he  received 
helpful  hints  from  the  old  builders  of  the  East.  Thus  architec- 
ture began  to  make  rapid  strides,  and  by  the  century  following 
the  age  of  Solon  at  Athens  there  were  many  beautiful  temples  in 
different  parts  of  the  Hellenic  world. 

311.  The  Temple  of  Artemis  at  Ephesus.  —  One  of  the  oldest 
as  well  as  most  beautiful  of  Greek  edifices  of  the  Ionic  order  was 
the  temple  of  Artemis  (Diana)  at  Ephesus.  It  was  counted  as 
one  of  the  wonders  of  the  ancient  world.  The  value  of  the  gifts 
and  votive  offerings  to  the  temple  was  beyond  all  calculation ; 

1  The  architecture  of  the  Mycenaean  Age,  which  was  represented  by  the  palace,— 
there  were  no  temples  in  that  age,  —  seems  to  have  exercised  but  little  influence 
upon  the  sacred  architecture  of  the  classical  age. 


THE   DELPHIAN    TEMPLE  297 

kings  and  cities  vied  with  one  another  in  the  cost  and  splendor  of 
their  donations.  Painters  and  sculptors  were  eager  to  have  their 
masterpieces  assigned  a  place  within  its  walls,  so  that  it  became 
a  great  national  gallery  of  paintings  and  statuary.- 

Just  after  the  middle  of  the  third  century  of  our  era  the  bar- 
barian Goths  robbed  the  shrine  and  left  it  a  ruin.  Builders  of  a 
later  date  used  the  ruins  as  a  stone  quarry.^  Some  of  the  cele- 
brated jasper  columns  of  the  temple  may  be  seen  to-day  in  the 
great  mosque  (once  the  church  of  St.  Sophia)  at  Constantinople. 

312.  The  Delphian  Temple.  — The  first  temple  erected  at  Del- 
phi over  the  spot  whence  issued  the  mysterious  vapors  (sec.  140) 
was  a  rude  wooden  structure.  In  the  year  548  b.c.  the  temple 
then  standing  was  destroyed  by  fire.  All  the  cities  and  states  of 
Hellas  contributed  to  its  rebuilding. 

The  later  structure  was  impressive  both  from  its  colossal  size 
and  the  massive  simplicity  that  characterizes  the  Doric  style  of 
architecture.  It  was  crowded  with  the  spoils  of  many  battlefields, 
with  the  rich  gifts  of  kings,  and  with  rare  works  of  art.  After 
remaining  long  secure,  through  the  awe  and  reverence  which  its 
oracle  inspired,  it  finally,  like  the  temple  at  Ephesus,  suffered  fre- 
quent spoliation.  The  Phocians  despoiled  the  temple  of  a  treasure 
equivalent,  it  is  estimated,  to  more  than  $10,000,000  (sec.  281),  and 
later  the  Romans  seem  to  have  stripped  it  bare  of  its  art  treasures.* 

313.  The  Athenian  Parthenon.  —  We  have  already  glanced  at 
the  Parthenon,  the  sanctuary  of  the  virgin  goddess  Athena,  upon 

2  Besides  being  in  a  sense  museums,  the  temples  of  the  Greeks  were  also  banks  of 
deposit.  The  priests  often  loaned  out  on  interest  the  money  deposited  with  them, 
the  revenue  from  this  source  being  added  to  that  from  the  leased  lands  of  the  temple 
and  from  the  tithes  of  war  booty  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  services  of  the  shrine 
(compare  sec.  58).  Usually  the  temple  property  in  Greece  was  managed  solely  by 
the  priests,  but  the  treasure  of  the  Parthenon  at  Athens  formed  an  exception  to  this 
rule.  The  treasure  here  belonged  to  the  state,  and  was  controlled  and  disposed  of 
by  the  vote  of  the  people.  Even  the  personal  property  of  the  goddess,  the  gold 
drapery  of  the  statue,  which  was  worth  about  ^^600,000,  could  be  used  in  case  of 
great  need;  but  it  must  be  replaced  in  due  time,  with  a  fair  interest. 

3  The  site  of  the  temple  was  for  many  centuries  lost;  but  in  1871  Mr.  Wood, 
an  excavator,  uncovered  portions  of  its  ancient  pavement,  and  brought  to  light 
fragments  of  sculpture,  which  may  now  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum, 

•i  At  all  events  the  spade  has  turned  up  comparatively  little  of  value  on  the  site 
of  the  temple,  which  was  thoroughly  excavated  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century. 


298       GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND   SCULPTURE 

the  Acropolis  at  Athens  (sec.  230).  This  temple,  which  is  built 
in  the  Doric  order,  of  marble  from  the  neighboring  PenteHcus, 
is  regarded  as  the  finest  specimen  of  Greek  architecture.  The 
art  exhibited  in  its  construction  is  an  art  of  ideal  perfection. 
After  standing  for  more  than  two  thousand  years,  and  having 


Fig.  97.  —  The  Parthenon.     (From  a  photograph) 

"  A  summary  of  all  that  is  best  and  most  characteristic  in  Greek  architecture 

and  sculpture  "  (Ernest  Arthur  Gardner) 

served  successively  as  a  pagan  temple,  a  Christian  church,  and  a 
Mohammedan  mosque,  it  finally  was  made  to  serve  as  a  Turkish 
powder  magazine  in  a  war  with  the  Venetians  in  1687.  During 
the  progress  of  this  contest  a  bomb  ignited  the  magazine,  and 
more  than  half  of  the  wonderful  masterpiece  was  shivered  into 
fragments.  Even  in  its  ruined  state  the  structure  constitutes  the 
most  highly  prized  memorial  that  we  possess  of  the  builders  of 
the  ancient  world  .^ 

314.  Olympia  and  the  Temple  of  Zeus  Olympius.  — The  sacred 
plain  of  the  Alpheus  in  Elis  was,  as  we  have  learned,  the  spot 
where  were  held  the  celebrated  Olympian  games.  Here  was 
raised  a  magnificent  Doric  temple  consecrated  to  Zeus  Olympius, 
and  around  it  were  grouped  a  vast  number  of  shrines,  treasure- 
houses,  porticoes,  and  various  other  structures. 

For  many  centuries  these  buildings  adorned  the  consecrated 
spot    and    witnessed   the    recurring   festivals.      But   in   the  fifth 

5  For  short  notices  of  other  buildings  at  Athens,  see  sec.  230. 


THE    MAUSOLEUM  AT   HALICARNASSUS 


299 


century  of  our  era  the  Christian  emperor  Theodosius  II  ordered 
their  destruction,  as  monuments  of  paganism,  and  the  splendid 
structures  were  given  to  the  flames.  Earthquakes,  landsHps,  and 
the  floods  of  the  Alpheus  completed  in  time  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion and  buried  the  ruins  beneath  a  thick  layer  of  earth. 

For  centuries  the  desolate  spot  remained  unvisited;  but  late 
in  the  last  century  the  Germans  thoroughly  excavated  the  temple 
site  and  the  sites  of  about  forty  other  neighboring  structures.  The 
remains  unearthed  were  of  such  an  extensive  nature  as  to  make 
possible  a  restoration  of  the  noble  assemblage  of  buildings  (PI.  X) 
which  we  may  believe  re-creates  with  fidelity  the  scene  looked 
upon  by  the  visitor  to  Olympia  in  the  days  of  its  architectural 
glory. 

315.  Theaters  and  Other  Structures.  —  The  Greek  theater  was 
semicircular  in  form,  and  open  to  the  sky,  as  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying cut.     The  structure  comprised  three  divisions  :  first,  the 


K^^^^^'i: 


Fig.  98.  —  The  Theater  of  Dionysus  at  Athens 
(From  a  photograph) 

semicircle  of  seats  for  the  spectators ;  second,  the  orchestra,  or 
dancing  place  for  the  chorus,  which  embraced  the  space  between 
the  lower  range  of  seats  and  the  stage ;  and  third,  the  stage,  a 
narrow  platform  for  the  actors. 


300      GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND    SCULPTURE 

The  most  noted  of  Greek  theaters  was  the  Theater  of  Dio- 
nysus at  Athens,  which  was  the  model  of  all  the  others.  It  was 
cut  partly  in  the  native  rock  on  the  southeastern  slope  of  the 
Acropolis,  the  Greeks  in  the  construction  of  their  theaters  gener- 
ally taking  advantage  of  a  hillside.  There  were  about  one  hundred 
rows  of  seats,  the  lowest,  bordering  the  orchestra,  consisting,  in 
later  times,  of  sixty-seven  marble  armchairs.  The  structure,  it  is 
said,  would  hold  thirty  thousand  spectators. 

316.  The  Mausoleum  at  Halicarnassus. — This  structure  was 
a  monumental  tomb  designed  to  preserve  the  memory  of  Mauso- 
lus,  king  of  Caria,  who  died  352  b.c.  The  chief  remains  of  the 
mausoleum  are  numerous  sculptures  dug  up  on  the  site  and  now 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  the  tradition  of  this  beau- 
tiful structure  that  has  given  the  world  a  name  for  all  monuments 
of  unusual  magnificence  raised  in  memory  of  the  dead. 

II.   Sculpture 

317.  Traces  of  Oriental  Influence  in  Early  Greek  Art. — The 
earliest  art  in  Greece  to  which  we  can  without  hesitation  apply 
the  term  "  Hellenic  "  exhibits  distinct  marks  of  Oriental  influ- 
ence.^ From  both  Egypt  and  Assyria  the  early  Greek  artist 
received  models  in  gold,  silver,  ivory,  and  other  material,  deco- 
rative designs,  and  a  knowledge  of  technical  processes.  But 
this  was  all.  The  Greek  was  never  a  servile  imitator.  His  true 
artistic  feeling  caused  him  to  reject  everything  unnatural  and 
grotesque  in  the  designs  and  models  of  the  Eastern  artists,  while 
his  kindling  genius  breathed  into  the  rigid  figures  of  the  Oriental 
sculptor  the  breath  of  hfe,  and  endowed  them  with  the  beauty 
and  grace  of  the  living  form.  From  the  beginning  of  the  sixth 
century  b.c.  forward  to  the  fifth  we  can  trace  clearly  the  growing 
excellence  of  Greek  sculpture  until  it  blooms  in  the  supreme 
beauty  of  the  art  of  the  Periclean  Age. 

6  The  relation  of  the  sculpture  of  the  Mycenaean  Age  to  that  of  historic  times  in 
Greece  is  really  unknown.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  in  the  primitive  art  of  the 
Mycenaean  period  we  may  recognize  an  early  stage  of  the  art  of  the  age  of  Phidias. 


THE  GYMNASIUM  AND   GREEK  SCULPTURE      30I 


318.  Influence  of  the  Olympian  Games  and  the  Gymnasium  upon 
Greek  Sculpture.  —  Towards  the  latter  part  of  the  sixth  century 
B.C.  it  became  the  custom  to  set  up  images  of  the  victors  in  the 
Olympian  games.  The  ground  at  Olympia  became  crowded  with 
"  a  band  of  chosen  youth  in  imperishable  forms."  Now,  in  repre- 
senting the  figures  of  the  gods  it  was  thought,  if  not  impious,  at 
least  presumptuous,  to  change  materially  the  conventional  forms  ; 
and  thus  a  certain  Egyptian  rigidity  was  imparted  to  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  artist.  But  in  the  representation  of  the  forms  of 
mere  men  the  sculptor  was  bound 
by  no  conventionalism,  being  per- 
fectly free  to  exercise  his  skill  and 
genius  in  handling  his  subject. 
Progress  and  improvement  now 
became  possible. 

In  still  another  way  did  the  Olym- 
pian contests  and  the  exercises  of 
the  gymnasia  exert  a  most  helpful 
influence  upon  Greek  sculpture. 
They  afforded  the  artist  unrivaled 
opportunities  for  the  study  of  the 
human  form.  "  The  whole  race,"  as 
Symonds  says,  "  lived  out  its  sculp- 
ture and  its  painting,  rehearsed,  as  it 
were,  the  great  works  of  Phidias  and  Polygnotus,  in  physical  exer- 
cises, before  it  learned  to  express  itself  in  marble  or  in  color." 

As  the  sacred  buildings  increased  in  number  and  costliness  the 
services  of  the  artist  were  called  into  requisition  for  their  adorn- 
ment. Every  available  space  was  filled  with  statues  and  groups 
of  figures  executed  by  the  most  renowned  artists  and  representing 
the  national  deities,  the  legendary  heroes,  victors  at  the  public 
games,  or  incidents  in  the  life  of  the  state  in  which  piety  saw 
the  special  interposition  of  the  god  in  whose  honor  the  shrine 
had  been  raised. 

319.  The  Archaic  Period,  down  to  the  Persian  Wars. — The 
oldest  remains  of  Greek  sculpture  are  specimens  of  carvings  in 


Fig.  99.  —  The  Wrestlers 

"  Particularly  were  the  games  pro- 
motive of  sculpture,  since  they  af- 
forded the  sculptor  living  models 
for  his  art"  (sec.  143) 


302 


GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND    SCULPTURE 


I 
I  / 


{ 


relief.  A  good  example  of  this  archaic  phase  of  Greek  sculpture 
is  seen  in  the  tombstone  of  Aristion  (Fig.  loo),  discovered  in 
Attica  in  1838.  The  date  of  this  work  is 
placed  at  about  550  B.C.  A  sort  of  Assyrian 
rigidity  still  binds  the  limbs  of  the  figure  and  a 
j  certain  archaism  of  manner  characterizes  the 
I  whole  ;  still  thtre  are  suggestions  of  the  grace 
'  and  freedom  of  a  truer  and  higher  art."^ 
j  320.  The  Period  of  Perfection  of  Greek  Sculp- 

ture :  the  Age  of  Phidias.  —  Greek  sculpture 
was  at  its  best  during  the  last  half  of  the  fifth 
century  B.C.  Our  space  will  permit  us  merely 
to  mention 
three  or  four 
of  the  great 
sculptors 
who  contributed 
to  the  glory  of  the 
age,  and  name 
what  the  world 
regards  as  their 
masterpieces. 

Myron,  whose 
best  work  was 
executed  probably 
about  460  B.C., 
was  a  contempo- 
rary of  Phidias. 
His  works  were  chiefly  in  bronze. 
They  were  strikingly  lifelike.  One  of 
his  most  celebrated  pieces  was  the  pj^.^oiT— Ihrowing  the 
Discobolus,  <dx    "Discus-thrower,"       Discus,  or  Quoit.     (The 

"Discobolus,"  Vatican 
Museum) 


N 


Fig.  IOC  — Stele 
OF  Aristion 

Example  of  archaic 
Attic  sculpture 


which  represents  the  athlete  just  in 


7  Other  specimens  of  this  early  art  are  the  sculptures  of  a  temple  of  the  city  of 
SeUnus  in  Sicily  (date  about  600  B.C.)  and  the  celebrated  figures  of  the  temple  at 
iEgina,  now  in  the  Museum  of  Munich. 


PERFECTION    OF   GREEK   SCULPTURE 


303 


the  act  of  pitching  the  discus.  The  accompanying  cut  (Fig.  10 1) 
is  a  copy  in  marble  of  the  bronze  original.^ 

But  the  preeminent  sculptor  of  this  period  of  perfection  was 
Phidias.  His  name  was  almost  the  only  one  among  Greek  sculp- 
tors which  really  lived  in  the  memory  and  imagination  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Phidias  was  an  Athenian  and  was  born  about 
488  B.C.  He  delighted  in  the  beautiful  myths  and  legends  of  the 
heroic  age,  and  from  these  often  drew  subjects  for  his  art. 

Phidias  being  an  architect  as  well  as  sculptor,  his  patron 
Pericles  gave  into  his  hands  the  general  superintendence  of  those 


Fig.  102.  —  Athenian  Youth  in  Procession 
(From  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon) 

magnificent  buildings  with  which  he  persuaded  the  Athenians  to 
adorn  their  city.  It  was  his  genius  which,  as  already  mentioned, 
created  the  marvelous  figures  of  the  pediments  and  of  the  frieze 
of  the  Parthenon.^ 

8  Almost  all  the  masterpieces  of  the  Greek  sculptors  have  perished ;  they  are  known 
to  us  only  through  Roman  copies.  But  to  these  copies  is  attributed  by  archaeologists 
a  special  value,  since  they  represent,  in  the  language  of  Furtwaengler,  "  that  pick  of 
the  masterpieces  of  the  classical  epoch  which  pleased  ancient  taste  and  connoisseur- 
ship  in  the  times  of  the  highest  culture." 

9  That  is  to  say,  the  designs  were  his ;  but  a  great  part  of  the  actual  sculpturing 
must  have  been  done  by  other  hands  working  under  the  direction  of  the  master 


304 


GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND   SCULPTURE 


The  most  celebrated  of  his  colossal  sculptures  were  the  statue 
of  Athena  within  the  Parthenon  and  that  of  Olympian  Zeus  in 
the  temple  at  Olympia.  The  statue  of  Athena  was  of  gigantic 
size,  being  about  forty  feet  in  height,  and 
was  constructed  of  ivory  and  gold,  the 
hair,  weapons,  and  drapery  being  of  the 
latter  material.    On  her  feet  were  golden 

sandals. 

The  statue  of  Olympian  Zeus  was  also 
of  ivory  and  gold.  It  was  sixty  feet  high 
and  represented  the  god  seated  on  his 
throne.  The  hair,  beard,  and  drapery 
were  of  gold.  The  eyes  were  brilliant 
stones.  Gems  of  great  value  decked  the 
throne,  and  figures  of  exquisite  design 
were  sculptured  on  the  golden  robe. 
The  colossal  proportions  of  this  wonder- 
ful work,  as  well  as  the  lofty  yet  benign 
aspect  of  the  countenance,  harmonized 
well  with  the  popular  conception  of  the 
After  a  statue  found  at  Athens    niajesty  and  grace  of  the  "  father  of  gods 

ini88o,  which  is  supposed  to  i       ^      ,,      x  ^i  t.^  ..       ■ 

be  a  copy,  executed  in  the    and  men."     It  was  thought  a  great  mis- 
second  century  of  our  era,  of    fortune  to  die  without  having  seen  the 


Fig.  103.  —  Athena 
Parthenos 


the  colossal  statue  of  Athena 
by  Phidias  described  in  the 
text 


Olympian  Zeus.^*'     The   statue  was  in 
existence  for  eight  hundred  years.    It  is 


mind.  The  subject  of  the  wonderful  frieze  was  the  procession  which  formed  the 
most  important  feature  of  the  Athenian  festival  known  as  the  Great  Panathenasa, 
which  was  celebrated  every  four  years  in  honor  of  the  patron  goddess  of  Athens. 
The  best  part  of  the  frieze  is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  the  Parthenon  having 
been  largely  despoiled  of  its  coronal  of  sculptures  by  Lord  Elgin.  Read  Lord 
Byron's  T/ie  Curse  of  Minerva.  To  the  poet  Lord  Elgin's  act  appeared  worse 
than  vandalism. 

10  "  Phidias  avowed  that  he  took  his  idea  from  the  representation  which  Homer 
gives  in  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad  in  the  passage  thus  translated  by  Pope : 

"  He  spake,  and  awful  bends  his  sable  brow, 
Shakes  his  ambrosial  curls,  and  gives  the  nod, 
The  stamp  of  fate  and  sanction  of  the  god. 
High  heaven  with  reverence  the  dread  signal  took, 
And  all  Olympus  to  the  centre  shook." 

BuLFiNCH,  Age  of  Fable. 


POLYCLETUS  AND   Pv^ONIUS 


305 


Fig,  104.  —  Head  of  the 
Olympian  Zeus  by 
Phidias.   (From  a  coin) 


believed  to  have  been  carried   to   Constantinople  and  to  have 
perished  there  in  a  conflagration  in  the  fifth  century  a.d." 

32 1 .  Polycletus  and  Paeonius.  —  At  the 
same  time  that  Phidias  was  executing  his 
ideal  representations  of  the  gods,  Poly- 
cletus the  Elder,  whose  home  was  at 
Argos,  was  producing  his  renowned 
bronze  statues  of  athletes.  Among  his 
pieces  was  one  representing  a  spear 
bearer,  which  was  regarded  as  so  perfect 
as  to  be  known  as  "the  Rule,"  Poly- 
cletus also  executed  some  statues  of  gods 
and  heroes,  among  which  his  Hera  was 
regarded  as  his  masterpiece. 
Another  name  belonging  to  this  period  of  bloom  has  teen  given 

a  new  luster  by  the  fresh  art  treasures  recovered  at  Olympia. 

Among  the  sculptures  exhumed  was  a 

Nike  or   "Victory"  (Fig.  105)  by   the 

artist   Paeonius.      This   beautiful  statue 

was,  according  to  a  tradition  current  in 

the  time  of  Pausanias,  set  up  at  Olympia 

by  the   Messenians  in  commemoration 

of  the   humiliation   inflicted   upon   the 

Spartans,  their  age-long  oppressors,  by 

the  affair  at  Sphacteria  during  the  course 

of  the  Peloponnesian  War  (sec.  238). 
322.   Scopas,  Praxiteles,  and  Lysippus 

(fourth  century  b.c). — Though  Greek 

sculpture  attained  its  highest  perfection 

in  the  fifth  century,  still  the  following 

century  produced  sculptors  whose  work    ^^^  105.  — Nike  or  Vic- 

possessed  quahties  of  rare   excellence.         ^o^y  of  P^onius 

Among  the  names  of  this  period  those  of        (Found  at  Olympia) 

11  Phidias  met  an  unworthy  fate.  He  was  prosecuted  on  the  charge  of  sacrilege 
because  he  introduced  among  the  figures  on  the  shield  of  Athena  portraits  of  his 
patron  Pericles  and  himself.     According  to  Plutarch,  he  died  in  prison. 


3o6      GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND    SCULPTURE 


Scopas,  Praxiteles,  and  Lysippiis  hold  a  chief  place.  Scopas 
(flourished  about  395-350  B.C.)  was  one  of  the  sculptors  who  cut 
the  figures  of  the  Mausoleum  at  Halicarnassus.  To  him  is  also 
ascribed  by  some  the  famous  composition  called  the  Niobe  Group}'^ 
But  the  most  eminent  sculptor  of  this  period  was  Praxiteles 
(period  of  activity  about  360-340  B.C.),  of  whom  it  has  been 
said  that  he  "rendered  into  stone  the  moods  of  the  soul." 
Among  his  chief  pieces  may  be  mentioned  the  Cnidia?i  Aphrodite 
and  the  Hermes.  The  first  of  these,  which  stood  in  the  temple 
of  Aphrodite  at  Cnidus,  was  regarded  by  the  ancients  as  the 
most  perfect  embodiment  of  the  goddess  of  beauty.  Pilgrim- 
ages were  made  from  remote  countries  to  Cnidus  for  the  sake  of 
looking  upon  the  matchless  statue.     Many  copies  were  set  up  in 

different  cities.  About 
two  centuries  ago 
excavations  at  Rome 
brought  to  light  a 
beautiful  statue,  sup- 
posed to  be  a  copy 
of  the  original  Cnidian 
Aphrodite. ^^ 

The  He rnies  of 
Praxiteles  was  set  up 
in  the  temple  of  Hera 
at  Olympia.  To  the 
great  joy  of  archaeol- 
ogists this  precious 
memorial  of  antiquity 
was  discovered  by  the 
German  excavators  of 
Olympia  in  1877,  so 
that   now   we    possess 


Fig.  106. 


Hermes  with  the  Infant 
Dionysus 


An  original  work  of  Praxiteles,  found  in  1S77 
at  Olympia 


12  Other  authorities  assign  this  work  to  Praxiteles. 

13  This  is  the  so-called  Venus  de  Medici.  The  name  comes  from  the  circum- 
stance of  the  statue  having  been  kept  for  some  time  after  its  discovery  in  the  palace 
of  the  Medici  at  Rome.  But  tliis  statue  is  no  longer  regarded  as  a  worthy  represent- 
ative of  the  original.     The  Vatican  copy  has  superseded  it. 


THE   SCHOOL  OF    RHODES 


307 


H 


an  undoubtedly  original  work  of  one  of  the   great  masters  of 
Greek  sculpture  (Fig.   106). 

Lysippus,  a  native  of  Sicyon,  is  renowned  for  his  works  in 
bronze.  His  period  of  activity  falls  in  the  last  half  of  the  fourth 
century  B.C.  His  statues  were  in  great  demand.  Alexander 
gave  the  artist  many  orders  for 
statues  of  himself.^'* 

323.  The  School  of  Rhodes.  — 
The  Graeco-Oriental  period  saw 
the  rise  at  Rhodes,  at  this  time 
the  commercial  emporium  of  the 
Eastern  Mediterranean,  of  a  cele- 
brated school  of  sculpture.  The 
city  became  a  great  art  center, 
second  only  to  Athens.  Its  streets 
and  gardens  and  public  edifices 
were  literally  crowded  with  statues. 
The  island  became  the  favorite  re- 
sort of  artists,  and  the  school  there 
founded  acquired  a  wide  renown. 
Very  many  of  the  prized  works  of 
Greek  art  in  our  museums  were 
executed  by  members  of  this 
Rhodian  school. 

One  of  the  most  noted  of  the 
Rhodian  sculptors  was  Chares,  who 
was  the  designer  of  the  celebrated  Colossus  of  Rhodes  (about 
280  B.C.).  This  work  was  reckoned  as  one  of  the  Seven  Won- 
ders of  the  world.^^ 

But  the  most  remarkable  piece  of  sculpture  attributed  to  mem- 
bers of  the  school  of  Rhodes  is  the  celebrated  group  known  as 
the  Laocomi  (Fig.  108),  found  at  Rome  in  1506,  and  now  in  the 

14  The  statue  of  Sophocles  (Fig.  113)  is  after  Lysippus. 

15  The  statue  was  not  as  large  as  the  statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  harbor. 
The  height  of  the  latter  is  151  feet.  After  standing  about  half  a  century,  the  Colos- 
sus was  overthrown  by  an  earthquake.  Nine  hundred  years  later  it  was  broken  up 
and  sold  for  old  metal. 


1^*-^^^ 


Fig.  107.  —  The  Nike  of  Samo- 
THRACE     (Louvre,  Paris) 

Set  up  on  the  island  of  Samothrace 
by  Demetrius  Poliorcetes  of  Mace- 
donia in  commemoration  of  a  naval 
victory  over  Ptolemy  of  Egypt  in 
306  B.C. 


3o8      GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND    SCULPTURE 


Museum  of  the  Vatican.  The  subject  represented  is  the  unjust 
punishment  inflicted,  through  the  agency  of  two  serpents,  upon 
Laocoon,  a  Trojan  priest  and  seer,  and  his  two  sons,  by  some  gods 
whom  he  had  innocently  offended.  Of  this  master- 
piece it  has  been  said  that  "  it  expresses  physical 
pain  and  passion  better  than  any  other  ex- 
isting group  of  statuary."  ^^ 


Fig.  ioS.  —  The  Laoocon  Group 
(Vatican,  Rome) 


Fig.  109.  —  Aphrodite 
OF  Melos  1"   (Louvre,  Paris) 


III.   Painting 

324.  Introductory.  — Although  the  Greek  artists  attained  a  high 
degree  of  excellence  in  painting,  still  they  never  brought  the  art 
to  that  perfection  which  they  reached  in  sculpture.  One  reason 
for  this  less  perfect  development  of  the  art  was  that  paintings  were 
never,  like  statues,  objects  of  veneration ;  hence  less  attention  was 
directed  to  them.^^ 

16  Another  noted  marble  group  of  the  Rhodian  school  is  knowTi  as  the  Farnese 
Bull,  now  in  the  Naples  Museum.  It  ■\\-as  discovered  in  the  sixteenth  century  in 
the  Baths  of  Caracalla  at  Rome,  whither  it  had  been  carried  from  Rhodes  in  the 
time  of  Augustus. 

1^  Discovered  on  the  island  of  Melos  in  1820.  Popularly  known  as  the  "  Venus  de 
Milo."    Name  of  sculptor  is  unknown. 

18  The  influence  of  religion  upon  the  painter's  art  is  illustrated  by  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  when  painting  entered  the  service  of  the  Church. 


POLYGXOTUS 


309 


With  the  exception  of  antique  vases,  a  few  patches  of  mural 
decoration,  some  interesting  portraits  (Fig.  no),  dating  probably 
from  the  second  century  after  Christ,  found  in  graves  in  Lower 
Egypt,  and  colored  sculpturings,^^  all  specimens  of  Greek  paint- 
ing have  perished.  Not  a  single  work  of  any  great  painter  of 
antiquity  has  survived  the  accidents  of  time.  Consequently  our 
knowledge  of  Greek  painting  is  derived 
chiefly  from  the  description  by  the  ancient 
writers  of  renowned  works,  and  their  anec- 
dotes of  great  painters.  These  classical 
stories  are  always  epigrams  of  criticism,  and 
thus  possess  a  technical  as  well  as  a  literary 
and  historical  value.  For  this  reason  we 
shall  repeat  some  of  them. 

325.  Polygnotus.  —  Polygnotus  (flourished 
475-455  B.C.)  has  been  called  the  Prometheus 
of  painting,  because  he  was  the  first  to  give 
fire  and  animation  to  the  expression  of  the 
countenance.  "  In  his  hand,"  it  is  aflfirmed, 
"  the  human  features  became  for  the  first  time   ^^^-  ^  ^°-  —  Portrait 


the  mirror  of  the  soul."  Of  a  Polyxena*^ 
painted  by  this  great  master  it  was  said  that 
"  she  carried  in  her  eyelids  the  whole  history 
of  the  Trojan  War." 

The  Athenians  conferred  upon  Polygnotus 
the  rights  of  citizenship,  and  he,  out  of 
gratitude,  painted  upon  the  walls  of  some  of 
their  public  buildings  the  grandest  frescoes 
the  world  had  ever  looked  upon.  The  fall 
of  Ilium  and  the  battle  of  Marathon  were  among  the  subjects 

19  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  believe  that  the  Greeks  painted  their  statues  and  the 
surfaces  of  their  stone  buildings  ;  but  the  recent  discovery  of  statues  and  carved 
stones  with  the  colors  upon  them  still  well  presers-ed  has  placed  the  matter  beyond 
all  doubt.  But  in  architecture,  in  later  times  especially,  the  Greek  artist  made  only 
a  moderate  use  of  color.  It  was  employed  merely  to  bring  out  in  stronger  relief  the 
sculptural  features  and  to  subdue  the  dazzling  whiteness  of  the  marble. 

'^^  Polyxena  was  a  daughter  of  the  Trojan  Priam,  famous  for  her  beauty  and 
sufferings. 


IX  Wax  Paint 
(From  the  Fayum) 

These  paintings  [Fayum 
portraits]  give  us  a  bet- 
ter idea  of  what  ancient 
painting  was,  and  what 
a  high  state  it  must 
have  reached  in  its 
prime,  than  anything 
yet  known,  excepting 
some  Pompeian  fres- 
coes" (Petrie) 


3IO      GREEK  ARCHITECTURE  AND   SCULPTURE 

represented.  On  the  walls  of  a  building  at  Delphi  he  painted 
a  still  more  celebrated  series  of  pictures  representing  the  descent 
of  Odysseus  into  Hades. 

326.  Zeuxis  and  Parrhasius.  —  These  great  artists  lived  and 
painted  in  the  later  years  of  the  fifth  century  b.c.  A  favorite 
and  familiar  story  preserves  their  names  as  companions,  and  com- 
memorates their  rival  genius.  Zeuxis,  such  is  the  story,  painted 
a  cluster  of  grapes  which  so  closely  imitated  the  real  fruit  that  the 
birds  pecked  at  them.  His  rival,  for  his  piece,  painted  a  curtain. 
Zeuxis  asked  Parrhasius  to  draw  aside  the  veil  and  exhibit  his 
picture.  "  I  confess  I  am  surpassed,"  generously  admitted  Zeuxis 
to  his  rival ;  "I  deceived  birds,  but  you  have  deceived  the  eyes 
of  an  experienced  artist." 

327.  Apelles.  — Apelles,  who  has  been  called  the  "Raphael  of 
antiquity,"  was  the  court  painter  of  Alexander  the  Great.  He 
was  such  a  consummate  master  of  the  art  of  painting  and  carried 
it  to  such  a  state  of  perfection  that  the  ancient  writers  spoke  of  it 
as  the  "Art  of  Apelles." 

That  Apelles,  like  Zeuxis  and  Parrhasius,  painted  lifelike  pictures 
is  shown  by  the  following  story.  In  a  contest  between  him  and 
some  rival  artists,  horses  were  the  objects  represented.  Perceiving 
that  the  judges  were  unfriendly  to  him,  Apelles  insisted  that  less 
prejudiced  judges,  namely,  some  horses  that  were  near,  should 
pronounce  upon  the  merit  of  the  respective  pieces.  When  brought 
before  the  pictures  of  his  rivals  the  horses  exhibited  no  concern ; 
but  upon  being  shown  the  painting  of  Apelles  they  manifested  by 
neighing  and  other  intelligent  signs  their  instant  recognition  of 
the  companions  the  great  master  had  created. 

In  the  hands  of  Apelles  Greek  painting  attained  its  highest 
excellence.  After  him  the  art  declined,  and  no  other  really  great 
name  appears. 

Selection  from  the  Sources.  —  Pausanias,  x.  25-31 ;  description  of  the 
paintings  of  Polygnotus  at  Delphi. 

References  (Modern).  —  Hamlin,  Text-Book  of  the  History  of  Architec- 
ture, chaps,  vi  and  vii.  Collignon,  A  Manual  of  Greek  Archa;ohs:y  ;  has 
valuable  references  in  connection  with  each  chapter.     Murray,  Handbook 


REFERENCES  31 I 

of  Greek  Archceology ;  A  History  of  Greek  Sadpture,  2  vols.;  and  I'he 
Sculptures  of  the  Parthenon.  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  History  of  Art  in 
Primitive  Greece,  2  vols.  Gardner,  Ancient  Athetts  and  Handbook  of 
Greek  Sculpture.  Mitchell,  History  of  Ancient  Sculpture,  pp.  137-669. 
DiEHL,  Excursions  in  Greece,  chap,  iv ;  gives  the  results  of  excavations 
made  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens  during  the  years  1882-1889.  Furt- 
WAENGLER,  Masterpieces  of  Greek  Sculpttire.  This  book  is  valuable  for 
the  specialist.  Von  Mach,  Greek  Sculpture:  Its  Spirit  and  Principles. 
Gardner,  A^ew  Chapters  in  Greek  History,  chap.  viii.  Tarbell,  A  His- 
tory of  Greek  Art.  Butler,  Story  of  Athens.  Harrison,  Introductory 
Studies  in  Greek  Art.  Harrison  and  Verrall,  Mythology  and  Monu- 
ments of  Ancient  Greece.  Teachers  will  enjoy  Pater,  Greek  Studies.  Con- 
sult also  by  means  of  Tables  of  Contents  and  Indices  the  histories  of 
CuRTius,  Grote,  Abbott,  and  Holm. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  relation  of  the  art  of  the  Mycenaean 
Age  to  that  of  the  classical  period  in  Greece.  2.  The  friezes  of  the  Par- 
thenon. 3.  The  Great  Altar  of  Zeus  Soter  at  Pergamum.  The  remarkable 
sculptures  of  this  monument  were  exhumed  on  the  ancient  acropolis  of 
Pergamum  during  the  years  1 878-1 886.  The  figures,  which  were  in  high 
relief  and  of  colossal  size,  decorated  the  four  sides  of  the  substruction  of 
a  great  altar  dedicated  to  Zeus  the  Deliverer,  in  commemoration  of  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Greeks  over  the  Gallic  invaders  of  Asia  Minor  (sec.  304).  The 
altar  is  supposed  to  have  been  built  by  King  Eumenes  II  (197-159  B.C.). 
The  subject  of  the  sculpturings  was  the  mythical  contest  of  the  gods  with 
the  earth-bom  giants,  which  struggle  seemed  to  the  Greeks  the  counterpart 
of  their  own  terrific  fight  with  the  uncouth  and  savage  Gauls.  The  reliefs 
are  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum.  4.  The  influence  of  the  gymnasium  upon 
Greek  art.  5.  Greek  painting  as  represented  by  the  wax-paint  portraits 
found  in  Egyptian  cemeteries. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 
GREEK  LITERATURE 

I.  Introductory 

328.  The  Greeks  as  Literary  Artists.  —  It  was  that  same  exqui- 
site sense  of  fitness  and  proportion  and  beauty  which  made  the 
Greeks  artists  in  marble  that  also  made  them  artists  in  language. 
"Of  all  the  beautiful  things  which  they  created,"  says  Professor 
Jebb,  "  their  own  language  was  the  most  beautiful."  This  lan- 
guage they  wrought  into  epics  and  lyrics  and  dramas  and  histories 
and  orations  as  incomparable  in  form  and  beauty  as  their  temples 
and  statues. 

Even  the  Greek  philosophers  arranged  and  expressed  their 
ideas  and  speculations  with  such  regard  to  the  rules  of  literary 
art  that  many  of  their  productions  are  fairly  entitled  to  a  place 
in  hterature  proper.  Especially  is  this  true  of  the  earlier  Greek 
philosophers,  who  wrote  in  hexameter  verse,  and  of  Plato,  in 
whose  works  the  profoundest  speculations  are  embodied  in  the 
most  perfect  literary  form.  But  as  Greek  philosophy,  viewed  as  a 
system  of  thought,  had  a  development  distinct  from  that  of  Greek 
Hterature  proper,  we  shall  deal  with  it  in  a  separate  chapter. 

329.  Periods  of  Greek  Literature.  —  Greek  Hterature,  for  the 
time  covered  by  our  history,  is  usually  divided  into  three  periods, 
as  follows  :  (i)  the  period  before  475  B.C. ;  (2)  the  Attic  or  Golden 
Age  (475-300  B.C.) ;   (3)  the  Alexandrian  Age  (300-146  B.C.). 

The  first  period  gave  birth  to  epic  and  lyric  poetry ;  the  second, 
to  history,  oratory,  and,  above  all,  to  dramatic  literature ;  while 
the  third  period  was  one  of  decline,  during  which  the  productions 
of  the  preceding  epochs  were  worked  over  and  commented  upon, 
or  feebly  imitated. 

312 


THE   HOMERIC   POEMS 


313 


II.  The  Period  before  475  b.c. 

330.  The  Homeric  Poems;  their  Authorship. — The  earliest 
specimens  of  Greek  poetry,  as  we  have  already  learned  (sec.  149), 
are  the  so-called  "  Homeric  poems,"  consisting  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  Odyssey. 

Until  the  rise  of  modern  German  criticism  these  poems  were 
almost  universally  ascribed  to  a  single  bard  named  Homer,  who 
was  beUeved  to  have  lived  about  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century 
B.C.,  one  or  two  centuries 
after  the  events  com- 
memorated in  his  poems. 
Tradition  represents  seven 
different  cities  as  contend- 
ing for  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing been  his  birthplace. 
He  traveled  widely  (so  it 
was  believed),  lost  his 
sight,  and  then  as  a  wan- 
dering minstrel  sang  his 
immortal  verses  to  admir- 
ing listeners  in  the  differ- 
ent cities  of  Hellas. 

But  it  is  now  the  opinion 
of  the  majority  of  scholars 
that  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey,  as  they  stand 
to-day,  are  not,  either  of 
them,  the  creation  of  a 
single  poet.  They  are 
beheved  to  be  the  work  of 

many  bards.  The  "  Wrath  of  Achilles,"  however,  which  forms  the 
nucleus  of  the  Iliad,  may,  with  very  great  probabihty,  be  ascribed  to 
Homer,  whom  we  may  beheve  to  have  been  the  most  prominent 
of  a  brotherhood  of  bards  who  flourished  about  850  or  750  B.C. 


Fig.  III.  —  Homer 


314 


GREEK   LITERATURE 


331.  Hesiod.  — Hesiod,  who  is  believed  to  have  lived  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  was  the  poet  of  nature 
and  of  real  life,  especially  of  peasant  life,  in  the  dim  transition 
age  of  Hellas.  The  Homeric  bards  sang  of  the  deeds  of  heroes, 
and  of  a  far-away  time  when  gods  mingled  with  men.  Hesiod 
sings  of  common  men,  and  of  everyday,  present  duties.  His  great- 
est poem,  a  didactic  epic,  is  entitled  Works  and  Days.  This  is, 
in  the  main,  a  sort  of  farmer's  calendar,  in  which  the  poet  points 
out  to  the  husbandman  the  lucky  and  unlucky  days  for  doing  cer- 
tain kinds  of  work,  gives  him  minute  instructions  respecting  farm 
labor,  descants  upon  justice,  eulogizes  industry,  and  intersperses 
among  all  his  practical  lines  homely  maxims  of  morality  and 
beautiful  descriptive  passages  of  the  changing  seasons. 

332.  Lyric  Poetry:-  Pindar.  — As  epic  poetry,  represented  by 
the  Homeric  and  Hesiodic  poems,  was  the  characteristic  pro- 
duction of  the  earlier  part  of  the  first  period  of  Greek  hterature, 
so  was  lyric  poetry  the  most  noteworthy  product  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  period.-^ 

The  ^olian  island  of  Lesbos  was  the  hearth  and  home  of  sev- 
eral of  the  earher  lyric  poets.  The  songs  of  these  Lesbian  bards 
fairly  glow  and  quiver  with  ardent  passion.  Among  the  earliest 
of  these  singers  were  Alcseus  and  Sappho. 

The  poetess  Sappho  (flourished  about  610-570  B.C.)  was  ex- 
alted by  the  Greeks  to  a  place  next  to  Homer.  Plato  calls 
her  the  Tenth  Muse.  "  Of  all  the  poets  of  the  world,"  writes 
Symonds,  "  of  all  the  illustrious  artists  of  Hterature,  Sappho  is 
the  one  whose  every  word  has  a  peculiar  and  unmistakable  per- 
fume, a  seal  of  absolute  and  inimitable  grace."  Although  her 
fame  endures,  her  poetry,  excepting  a  few  precious  verses,  has 
long  since  perished. 

Anacreon  (period  of  poetical  activity  about  550-500  B.C.)  was 
a  courtier  at  the  time  of  the  Greek  tyrannies.     He  was  a  native 

1  This  species  of  poetry  had  a  forerunner  in  Archilochus,  who  belongs  to  the  early 
part  of  the  seventh  century  B.C.  He  wrote  both  elegies  and  lyrics,  of  which  we  possess 
only  fragments.  He  possessed  in  rare  measure  "  the  lovely  gift  of  the  muses  "  ;  but 
his  satires  were  often  coarse  and  venomous.  Mahaffy  calls  him  the  Swift  of  Greek 
literature. 


GOLDEN  AGE   OF   GREEK   LITERATURE         315 

of  Ionia,  but  passed  much  of  his  time  as  a  favored  minstrel  at 
the  court  of  Polycrates  of  Samos,  and  at  that  of  the  tyrant 
Hipparchus  at  Athens. 

Simonides  of  Ceos  (556-467  B.C.)  hved  during  the  Persian 
Wars.  He  composed  immortal  couplets  for  the  monuments  of 
the  fallen  heroes  of  Thermopylae  and  Salamis.  These  epigrams 
were  burned  into  the  very  soul  of  every  person  in  Hellas. 

But  the  greatest  of  the  Greek  lyric  poets,  and  perhaps  the 
greatest  of  all  lyric  poets  of  every  age  and  race,  was  Pindar 
(522-448  B.C.).  He  was  born  at  Thebes,  but  spent  most  of  his 
time  in  the  cities  of  Magna  Graecia.  The  greater  number  of 
Pindar's  poems  were  inspired  by  the  scenes  of  the  national  fes- 
tivals. They  describe  in  lofty  strains  the  splendors  of  the  Olym- 
pian chariot  races,  or  the  glory  of  the  victors  at  the  Isthmian, 
the  Nemean,  or  the  Pythian  games. 

Pindar  insists  strenuously  upon  virtue  and  self-culture.  With 
deep  meaning,  he  says,  "  Become  that  which  thou  art "  ;  that  is, 
be  that  which  you  are  made  to  be. 

III.   The  Attic   or  Golden  Age  (475-300  b.c.) 

333.  Influences  Favorable  to  a  Great  Literature.  — The  Golden 
Age  of  Greek  literature  followed  the  Persian  Wars,  and  was  in  a 
large  measure  produced  by  them.  Every  great  hterary  outburst 
is  the  result  of  a  profound  stirring  of  the  depths  of  national  life. 
All  Hellas  had  been  profoundly  moved  by  the  tremendous  strug- 
gle for  poHtical  existence.  Athens  especially  had  risked  all  and 
achieved  all.  Her  citizens  now  felt  an  unwonted  exaltation  of 
Hfe.  Hence  Athens  naturally  became  the  home  and  center  of  the 
Hterary  activity  of  the  period. 

The  Attic  Uterature  embraces  almost  every  species  of  compo- 
sition, yet  the  drama,  history,  and  oratory  are  its  most  character- 
istic forms.  Especially  favorable  were  the  influences  of  the  time 
for  the  production  of  great  dramatic  works.  The  two  conditions, 
"  intense  activity  and  an  appreciative  audience,"  without  which,  it 
is  asserted,  a  great  drama  cannot  exist,  met  in  the  Age  of  Pericles. 


3i6 


GREEK  LITERATURE 


Hence  the  unrivaled  excellence  of  the  Attic  drama,  the  noblest 
production  of  the  artistic  genius  of  the  Greeks. 


The  Greek  Drama  and  Dramatists 

334.  Origin  of  the  Greek  Drama.  — The  Greek  drama,  in  both 
its  branches  of  tragedy  and  comedy,  grew  out  of  the  songs  and 
dances  instituted  in  honor  of  the  god  of  wine  —  Dionysus. 

Tragedy  (goat  song,  possibly  from  the  accompanying  sacrifice 
of  a  goat)   sprang  from  the  graver  songs,  and  comedy  (village 

song)  from  the 
lighter  and  more 
farcical  ones. 
Gradually  recital 
and  dialogue  were 
added,  there  being 
at  first  but  a  single 
speaker,  then  two, 
and  finally  three, 
which  last  was  the 
classical  number. 
Thespis  (about  534  B.C.)  is  said  to  have  introduced  this  idea  of  a 
dialogue,  hence  the  term  "  Thespian  "  applied  to  the  tragic  drama. 
Owing  to  its  origin,  the  Greek  drama  always  retained  a  reU- 
gious  character  and,  further,  presented  two  distinct  features,  the 
chorus  (the  songs  and  dances)  and  the  dialogue.  At  first  the 
chorus  was  the  all-important  part ;  but  later  the  dialogue  became 
the  more  prominent  portion,  the  chorus,  however,  always  remain- 
ing an  essential  feature  of  the  performance.  Finally,  in  the  golden 
age  of  the  Attic  stage,  the  chorus  dancers  and  singers  were  care- 
fully trained  at  great  expense,  and  the  dialogue  and  choral  odes 
formed  the  masterpiece  of  some  great  poet,  —  and  then  the  Greek 
drama,  the  most  splendid  creation  of  human  genius,  was  complete. 

335.  The  Subjects  of  the  Tragic  Poets. — The  tragic  poets  of 
Athens  drew  the  material  of  their  plays  chiefly  from  the  myths 
and  legends  of  the  heroic  age,  just  as  Shakespeare  for  many  of 


Fig.  112.  —  Bacchic  Procession 


LEADING   IDEA  OF   GREEK   TRAGEDY  317 

his  plays  used  the  legends  of  the  semi-historical  periods  of  his  owti 
country  or  of  other  lands.  These  legendar}^  tales  they  handled 
freely,  so  changing,  coloring,  and  moralizing  them  as  to  render 
them  the  vehicle  for  the  conveying  of  great  ethical  lessons,  or  of 
profound  philosophical  ideas  regarding  the  divine  government  of 
the  world. 

336.  The  Leading  Idea  of  Greek  Tragedy.  —  Symonds  believes 
the  fundamental  idea  of  Greek  tragedy  to  be  the  doctrine  of 
Nemesis.  Nemesis,  it  will  be  recalled,  was  the  goddess  who  pun- 
ished pride  and  presumption. 

To  understand  how  the  Greeks  should  have  come  to  regard 
insolent  self-assertion  or  the  unrestrained  indulgence  of  appetite 
or  passion  as  the  most  heinous  of  sins,  we  must  recall  the  legend 
upon  the  front  of  the  Delphian  temple,  —  *'  Measure  in  all  things." 
As  proportion  was  the  cardinal  element  of  beauty  in  art,  so  wise 
moderation  was  the  prime  quality  in  virtue.  Those  who  mod- 
erated not  their  desire  of  fame,  of  wealth,  of  dominion,  were  the 
most  impious  of  men,  and  all  such  the  avenging  Nemesis  failed 
not  to  bring,  through  their  own  mad  presumption  and  over- 
vaulting  ambition,  to  overwhelming  and  irretrievable  ruin. 

We  shall  see  in  a  moment  how  this  idea  inspired  some  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Greek  dramas. 

337.  The  Three  Great  Tragic  Poets.  —  There  are  three  great 
names  in  Greek  tragedy,  —  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides. 
These  dramatists  all  wrote  during  the  splendid  period  which 
followed  the  victories  of  the  Persian  Wars,  when  the  intellectual 
life  of  all  Hellas,  and  especially  that  of  Athens,  was  strung  to 
the  highest  tension.  This  lent  nervous  power  and  intensity  to 
their  productions,  particularly  to  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus  and 
Sophocles.  Of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  dramas  produced 
by  these  poets,  only  thirty-two  have  come  down  to  us ;  all  the 
others  have  perished  through  the  accidents  of  time. 

^schylus  (525-456  B.C.)  was  more  than  Shakespearean  in  the 
gloom  and  intensity  of  his  tragedies.  He  knew  how  to  touch  the 
hearts  of  the  generation  that  had  won  the  victories  of  the  Per- 
sian Wars ;   for  he  had  fought  at  Marathon  and  probably  also  at 


3i8 


GREEK   LITERATURE 


Salamis.  The  Athenians  called  him  the  "  Father  of  Tragedy." 
Prometheus  Bound  is  one  of  his  chief  works,  —  "one  of  the 
boldest  and  most  original  dramas,"  Ranke  declares,  "  that  has 


ever  been  written."      He  makes 


prominent  Prometheus'  faults 
of  impatience  and  self-will, 
and  shows  that  his  sufferings 
are  but  the  just  penalty  of 
his  presumption  and  self- 
assertion.^ 

Another  of  the  great  trage- 
dies of  ^Eschylus  is  his  Aga- 
77ie7n7ion,  thought  by  some  to 
be  his  masterpiece.  The  sub- 
ject is  the  crime  of  Clytem- 
nestra  (sec.  131).  It  is  a 
tragedy  crowded  with  spirit- 
shaking  terrors  and  filled  with 
more  than  human  crimes  and 
woes.  Nowhere  is  portrayed 
with  greater  power  the  awful 
vengeance  with  which  the  im- 
placable Nemesis  is  armed. ^ 

The  theme  of  The  Persia7is 
by  yEschylus  w^as  the  defeat 
of  Xerxes  and  his  host,  which 
afforded  the  poet  a  good 


2  In  punishment  for  having  stolen 
fire  from  heaven  and  given  it  to  men, 
and  for  having  taught  them  the  arts  of 
life,  the  Titan  Prometheus  is  chained 
by  Zeus  to  a  lonely  cliff  on  the  re- 
mote shores  of  the  Euxine,  and  an 
eagle  is  sent  to  feed  upon  his  liver,  which  each  night  grows  anew. 

3  The  Agamemnon  forms  the  first  of  a  trilogy;  that  is,  a  series  of  three  dramas, 
the  other  pieces  being  entitled  the  CJwephorcB  and  the  Eiimeiiides.  These  continue 
the  subject  of  the  Agamemnon,  so  that  the  three  really  form  a  single  drama  or  story. 
On  the  Greek  stage,  the  several  parts  of  the  trilogy  were  performed  successively  the 
same  day.  This  trilogy  of  ^Eschylus  is  the  only  one  from  the  ancient  stage  of  which 
all  the  parts  have  come  down  to  us. 


Fig.  113. 


■Sophocles. 
Rome) 


(Lateral!, 


THE  THREE  GREAT  TRAGIC  POETS 


319 


opportunity  "  to  state  his  philosophy  of  Nemesis,  here  being  a 
splendid  tragic  instance  of  pride  humbled,  of  greatness  brought 
to  nothing,  through  one  man's  impiety  and  pride."  The  poet 
teaches  that  "no  mortal  may  dare  raise  his  heart  too  high,"  — 
that  "  Zeus  tames  excessive  hfting  up  of  heart." 

Sophocles  (about  496-405  B.C.)  while  yet  a  youth  gained  the 
prize  in  a  poetic  contest  with  ^schylus  (468  B.C.).  Plutarch  says 
that  yEschylus  was  so  chagrined  by  his  defeat  that  he  left  Athens 
and  retired  to  Sicily.  Sophocles  now  became  the  leader  of  tragedy 
at  Athens.  He  lived  through  nearly  a  century,  —  a  century,  too, 
that  comprised  the  most  brilliant  period  of  the  life  of  Hellas.  His 
dramas  were  perfect  works  of  art. 

The  central  idea  of  his  dramas  is  the  same  as  that  which 
characterizes  those  of  ^schylus,  namely,  that  self-will  and  inso- 
lent pride  arouse  the  righteous  indignation  of  the  gods,  and  that 
no  mortal  can  contend  successfully 

against  the  will  of  Zeus.    The  chief  "^ 

works  of  Sophocles  are  CEdipus 
Tyraiifitcs,  CEdipus  Coloneus,  and 
Antigofie,  all  of  which  are  founded 
upon  the  old  tales  of  the  prehis- 
toric royal  line  of  Thebes. 

Euripides  (480-406  B.C.)  was  a 
more  popular  dramatist  than  either 
yEschylus  or  Sophocles,  ^schylus 
was  too  lofty,  severe,  and  earnest  a 
poet  to  be  long  a  favorite  with  the 
volatile  and  pleasure-loving  Athe- 
nians. They  tired  of  him  as  they 
did  of  Aristides.  Nor  was  Sopho- 
cles sensational  enough  to  please  them,  after  the  state  of  exalted 
religious  feeling  awakened  by  the  tremendous  experiences  of  the 
Persian  Wars  had  passed  away.  Euripides  was  a  better  representa- 
tive than  either  of  these  of  the  Athenian  in  his  normal  mood. 

The  fame  of  Euripides  passed  far  beyond  the  Hmits  of  Greece. 
It  is  asserted  that  the  verses  of  the  poet  were  recited  by  the 


Fig.  114.  —  Euripides 
(Vatican,  Rome) 


320 


GREEK   LITERATURE 


natives  of  the  remote  country  of  Gedrosia ;  and  Plutarch  says  that 
the  Sicilians  were  so  fond  of  his  lines  that  many  of  the  Athenian 
prisoners,  taken  before  Syracuse,  bought  their  Hberty  by  teach- 
ing their  masters  such  of  his  verses  as  they  could  repeat  from 
memory. 

338.  Comedy :  Aristophanes.  —  Foremost  among  all  writers  of 
comedy  must  be  placed  Aristophanes  (about  450-385  B.C.).  He 
introduces  us  to  the  everyday  life  of  the  least  admirable  classes 
of  Athenian  society.  Four  of  his  most  noted  works  are  the  Clouds, 
the  Knights,  the  Birds,  and  the  Wasps. 

In  the  comedy  of  the  Clouds,  Aristophanes  especially  ridicules 
the  Sophists,  a  school  of  philosophers  and  teachers  just  then  rising 
into  prominence  at  Athens,  of  whom  the  satirist  unfairly  makes 
Socrates  the  representative. 

The  aim  of  the  Knights  was  the  punishment  and  ruin  of  Cleon, 
whom  we  already  know  as  one  of  the  most  conceited  and  insolent 
of  the  demagogues  of  Athens. 

The  play  of  the  Birds  is  "  the  everlasting  allegory  of  foolish 
sham  and  flimsy  ambition."  But  while  having  a  general  appli- 
cation, it  was  aimed  particularly  at  the  ambitious  Sicilian  schemes 
of  Alcibiades ;  for  at  the  time  the  play  appeared,  the  Athenian 
army  was  before  Syracuse,  and  elated  by  the  good  news  daily 
arriving,  the  Athenians  were  building  the  most  gorgeous  air 
castles,  and  indulging  in  the  most  extravagant  day  dreams  of 
universal  dominion. 

In  the  Wasps  the  poet  satirizes  the  proceedings  in  the 
Athenian  law  courts.* 

History  and  Historians 

Poetry  is  the  first  form  of  literary  expression  among  all  peoples. 
So  we  must  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  it  was  not  until  two  cen- 
turies or  more  after  the  composition  of  the  Homeric  poems,  that 
is  about  the  sixth  century  b.c,  that  prose  writing  appeared  among 

4  Menander  (342-292  B.C.)  was,  after  Aristophanes,  the  most  noted  of  Greek  comic 
poets.  He  was  the  leader  of  what  is  known  as  the  New  Comedy.  His  plays  were 
very  popular  with  the  Romans. 


HERODOTUS 


321 


the  Greeks.  Historical  composition  was  then  first  cultivated.  We 
can  speak  briefly  of  only  three  historians  —  Herodotus,  Thucyd- 
ides,  and  Xenophon  —  whose  names  were  cherished  among  the 
ancients,  and  whose  writings  are  highly  valued  and  carefully  studied 
by  ourselves. 

339.  Herodotus. — Herodotus  (about  484-425  B.C.),  born  at 
Halicarnassus,  in  Asia  Minor,  is  called  the  "  Father  of  History." 
He  traveled  over  much  of  the  then  known  world,  visiting  Italy, 
Egypt,  and  Babylonia,  and  described  as  an  eyewitness,  with  a 
never-failing  vivacity  and  freshness,  the  wonders  of  the  different 
lands  he  had  seen.  Herodotus  lived  in  a 
story-telHng  age,  and  he  is  himself  an  inimi- 
table story-teller.  To  him  we  are  indebted 
for  a  large  part  of  the  tales  of  antiquity,  — 
stories  of  men  and  events  which  we  never 
tire  of  repeating.  He  was  overcredulous, 
and  was  often  imposed  upon  by  his  guides 
in  Egypt  and  at  Babylon ;  but  he  describes 
with  great  care  and  accuracy  what  he  him- 
self saw. 

The  central  theme  of  his  great  History  is 
the  Persian  Wars,  the  struggle  between  Asia 
and  Greece.  Around  this  he  groups  the 
several  stories  of  the  nations  of  antiquity. 
In  the  pictures  which  the  artist  historian 
draws,  we  see  vividly  contrasted,  as  in  no  other  writings,  the  East 
and  the  West,  Persia  and  Hellas. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  whole  history,  the  conception 
which  shapes  and  colors  the  main  narrative,  is  the  same  as  that 
which  inspires  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus,  — the  doctrine  of  Nem- 
esis. Possessed  by  this  idea,  the  historian  becomes  a  dramatist, 
and  his  history  a  world  tragedy.  In  the  moral  lesson  it  teaches, 
it  is  practically  an  expansion  of  the  ^schylean  drama  of  The 
Persians. 

340.  Thucydides.  — Thucydides  (about  471-400  b.c),  though 
not  so  popular  an  historian  as  Herodotus,  was  a  much  more 


Fig.  115.  —  Herod- 
otus 
(National  Museum, 
Naples) 


322 


GREEK   LITERATURE 


philosophical  writer.  He  was  born  near  Athens.  He  held  a 
command  during  the  earlier  years  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  but 
having  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Athenians  he  was  sent  into 
the  exile  which  afforded  him  leisure  to  compose  his  history  of 
that  great  struggle.  Through  the  closest  observation  and  study, 
he  qualified  himself  to  become  the  his- 
torian of  what  he  from  the  first  foresaw 
would  prove  a  memorable  war. 

Thucydides  died  before  his  task  was 
completed.^     His  work  is  considered  a 
y  model  of  historical  writing.     Demosthe- 

'  nes  read  and  reread  his  writings  to  im- 


I  \     orators  and  historians  of  modern  times 


have  been  equally  diligent  students  of 
Fig.  I  i6.- Thucydides      ^^^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^  Athenian. 

(National  Museum,  Naples)  ° 

341 .  Xenophon.  —  Xenophon   (about 

445-355  B.C.)  was  an  Athenian,  and  is  known  both  as  a  general 
and  a  writer.  The  works  that  render  his  name  so  familiar  are  his 
Anadasis,  a  simple  yet  thrilUng  narrative  of  the  expedition  of  the 
Ten  Thousand  Greeks  (sec.  259),  and  his  Me77iorabiIia,  or  "  Recol- 
lections "  of  Socrates.  This  work  by  his  devoted  yet  by  no  means 
brilHant  pupil  is  the  most  faithful  portraiture  that  we  possess  of 
that  philosopher. 

Xenophon's  Cyropcedia,  or  "Education  of  Cyrus,"  is  essentially 
an  historical  romance,  which  portrays  not  alone  the  youth,  but 
the  whole  life  of  Cyrus  the  Great,  besides  delineating  the  manners 
and  institutions  of  the  Persians. 

Oratory 

342.  Influence  of  Democratic  Institutions.  — The  art  of  oratory 
among  the  Greeks  was  fostered  and  developed  by  the  generally 
democratic  character  of  their  institutions.  In  the  public  assem- 
bhes  of  the  free  cities  all  questions  that  concerned  the  state  were 

5  His  history  breaks  off  abruptly  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  the  war.  The 
Hellenica  of  Xenophon  forms  a  continuation  of  the  interrupted  narrative. 


DEMOSTHENES  323 

discussed  and  decided.  The  gift  of  eloquence  secured  for  its 
possessor  a  sure  preeminence,  and  conferred  a  certain  leadership 
in  the  affairs  of  state.  The  great  jury  courts  of  Athens  (sec.  229) 
were  also  schools  of  oratory ;  for  every  citizen  there  was  obliged 
to  be  his  own  advocate  and  to  defend  his  own  case.  Hence  the 
attention  bestowed  upon  public  speaking,  and  the  high  degree  of 
perfection  attained  by  the  Greeks  in  the  difficult  art  of  persuasion. 
Almost  all  the  prominent  Athenian  statesmen  were  masters  of 
oratory. 

343.  Demosthenes. — It  has  been  the  fortune  of  Demosthenes 
(385-322  B.C.)  to  have  his  name  become  throughout  the  world 
the  synonym  of  eloquence.^  The  labors  and  struggles  by  which, 
according  to  tradition,  he  achieved  excellence  in  his  art  are  held  up 
anew  to  each  generation  of  youth  as  guides  of  the  path  to  success. 

The  latter  part  of  the  hfe  of  Demosthenes  is  intertwined  with 
that  of  another  and  rival  Athenian  orator,  ^schines.  For  his 
services  to  the  state,  the  Athenians  awarded  to  Demosthenes 
a  crown  of  gold,  ^schines,  along  with  other  enemies  of  the 
orator,  attacked  this  measure  of  the  assembly  and  brought  the 
matter  to  a  trial.  All  Athens  and  strangers  from  far  and  near 
gathered  to  hear  the  rival  orators;  for  every  matter  at  Athens, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  decided  by  a  great  debate.  Demosthenes 
made  the  grandest  effort  of  his  life.  His  address,  known  as  the 
Oration  o?t  the  Crown,  has  been  declared  to  be  "  the  most  polished 
and  powerful  effort  of  human  oratory."  It  was  an  unanswerable 
defense  by  Demosthenes  of  his  whole  policy  of  opposition  to 
Philip  of  Macedon,  and  of  his  counsel  to  the  Athenians  to  try 
doubtful  battle  with  him  on  the  fatal  field  of  Chseronea  (sec.  282). 
The  refrain  that  runs  through  all  the  speech  is  this  :  It  is  better 
to  have  fought  at  Chseronea  and  to  have  left  our  dead  on  the 
lost  field,  than  never  to  have  undertaken  battle  in  defense  of  the 

6  Lysias  (458-?378  B.C.),  Isocrates  (436-338  B.C.),  and  Isaeus  (b.  about  420  B.C.) 
were  all  noted  representatives  of  the  art  of  political  or  forensic  oratory,  and  fore- 
runners of  Demosthenes.  We  should  call  Isocrates  a  rhetorician  instead  of  an 
orator,  as  his  discourses  (which  for  the  most  part  were  written  for  others  to  deliver) 
were  intended  to  be  read  rather  than  spoken.  The  Roman  Cicero  was  his  debtor 
and  imitator. 


324  GREEK   LITERATURE 

liberties  of  Hellas.  It  was  ours  to  do  our  duty,  the  issue  rested 
with  the  gods.''  ^Eschines  was  completely  crushed.  He  left  Athens 
and  became  a  teacher  of  oratory  at  Rhodes. 

Respecting  the  several  orations  of  Demosthenes  against  Philip 
of  Macedon,  and  the  death  of  the  eloquent  patriot,  we  have 
already  spoken  (sees.  280  and  304). 

IV.  The  Alexandrian  Age  (300-146  b.c.) 

344.  Character  of  the  Literature.  —  The  Alexandrian  period  of 
Greek  literature  embraces  the  time  between  the  break-up  of 
Alexander's  empire  and  the  conquest  of  Greece  by  Rome  (300- 
146  B.C.).  During  this  period  Alexandria  in  Egypt  was  the  center 
of  Hterary  activity,  hence  the  term  "Alexandrian,"  applied  to  the 
literature  of  the  age.  The  great  Museum  and  Library  of  the 
Ptolemies  afforded  in  that  capital  such  faciHties  for  students  and 
authors  as  existed  in  no  other  city  in  the  world. 

But  the  creative  age  of  Greek  literature  was  over.  With  the 
loss  of  political  liberty  and  the  decay  of  faith  in  the  old  religion, 
literature  was  cut  off  from  its  sources  of  inspiration.  Conse- 
quently the  Alexandrian  Hterature  lacked  freshness  and  originality. 
It  was  imitative,  critical,  and  learned.  The  writers  of  the  period 
were  grammarians,  commentators,  and  translators,  —  in  a  word, 
bookworms. 

345.  Works  and  Writers.  —  One  of  the  most  important  literary 
undertakings  of  the  age  was  the  translation  of  the  Old  Testament 
of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  into  Greek.  From  the  traditional  num- 
ber of  translators  (seventy)  the  version  is  known  as  the  Septu- 
agint.  This  great  work,  as  we  have  seen  (sec.  306),  was  carried 
on  under  the  direction  and  patronage  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus. 

It  was  also  during  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  that  Mane- 
tho  wrote,  from  the  monuments,  his  history  of  Egypt  (sec.  23). 
Just  about  the    same    time    Berosus   compiled,   for  one   of    the 

T'  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  oration  was  given  in  the  year  330  B.C., 
when  the  Macedonian  power  was  supreme,  with  Alexander  lord  of  both  the  East 
and  the  West. 


GR^CO-ROMAN    WRITERS  325 

Seleucidae,  the  chronicles  of  Chaldea.     We  possess  only  fragments 
of  these  works,  but  these  have  a  high  historical  value. 

Among  the  poets  of  the  period  one  name,  and  only  one,  stands 
out  clear  and  preeminent.  This  is  that  of  Theocritus,  a  Sicilian 
poet,  who  wrote  at  Alexandria  under  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  His 
idyls  are  beautiful  pictures  of  Sicilian  pastoral  life. 

346.  Conclusion  :  Graeco-Roman  Writers.  —  After  the  Roman 
conquest  of  Greece,  the  center  of  Greek  hterary  activity  shifted 
from  Alexandria  to  Rome.  Hence  Greek  hterature  now  passes  into 
what  is  known  as  its  Grgeco-Roman  Period  (146  B.C.-527  a.d.). 

The  most  noted  historical  writer  of  the  first  part  of  this  period 
was  Polybius  (about  203-121  B.C.),  who  wrote  a  history  of  the 
Roman  conquests  from  264  to  146  B.C.  His  work,  though  the 
larger  part  of  it  has  reached  us  in  a  mutilated  state,  is  of  great 
worth;  for  Polybius  wrote  of  matters  that  had  become  his- 
tory in  his  own  day.  He  had  hved  to  see  the  greater  part  of 
the  world  he  knew  absorbed  by  the  ever-growing  power  of  the 
Imperial  City. 

Diodorus  Siculus  (lived  under  Augustus  Caesar  at  Rome)  was  the 
author  of  a  general  history  of  the  world.  Herodotus  had  grouped 
all  his  material  about  the  struggle  between  Greece  and  Persia,  but 
Diodorus  makes  Rome  the  center  of  the  whole  story.  Aheady 
men  were  coming  to  regard  Rome  as  the  preordained  head  and 
ruler  of  the  world. 

Plutarch  (b.  about  a.d.  40),  "  the  prince  of  biographers,"  will 
always  live  in  literature  as  the  author  of  the  Parallel  Lives,  in 
which,  with  great  wealth  of  illustrative  ancedotes,  he  compares  or 
contrasts  Greek  and  Roman  statesmen  and  soldiers.  The  motive 
that  led  Plutarch  to  write  the  book,  as  we  may  infer  from  the  par- 
tiaUty  which  he  displays  for  his  Greek  heroes,  was  a  desire  to  let 
the  world  know  that  Hellas  had  once  bred  men  the  peers  of  the 
best  men  that  Rome  had  ever  brought  forth. 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Sophocles,  Antigone,  440-470 ;  defense 
of  Antigone  to  Creon.  Homer,  Iliad,  vi.  370-481  ;  the  parting  of  Androm- 
ache and  Hector.  ^Eschylus,  Prometheus  Bound,  342-378;  the  lament 
of  Prometheus. 


326  GREEK   LITERATURE 

References  (Modern).  —  Leaf,  Cornpanion  to  the  Iliad ;  maintains  that 
the  Iliad  is  a  growth  from  a  single  poem,  added  to  from  time  to  time  by 
many  hands.  Lang,  Homer  and  the  Epic ;  supports  the  theory  of  the 
single  authorship  of  the  Iliad  znd  Odyssey.  Jebb,  Homer:  Aii  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey ;  The  Growth  and  Injluence  of  Classical  Greek 
Poetry  ;  Primer  of  Greek  literature  ;  and  Attic  Orators,  2  vols.  Church, 
Stories  from  the  Greek  Tragedians.  Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  vol.  i,  pp. 
1-114;  for  a  veiy  interesting  sketch  of  the  life  of  Herodotus  and  his 
merits  and  defects  as  an  historian.  Felton,  Greece.,  Ancient  and  Modern, 
vol.  i,  pp.  3-267  ;  on  the  Greek  Language  and  Poetry;  vol.  ii,  pp.  111-246; 
six  lectures  on  the  orators  of  Greece.  Macaulay,  Essay  on  the  Athenian 
Orators.  Mahaffy,  History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature,  2  vols.  Jev- 
ONS,  History  of  Greek  Literature.  Muller  and  Donaldson,  History  of  the 
Literature  of  Ancient  Greece,  2  vols.  Murray,  History  of  Ancient  Greek 
Literaticre.  Capp,  Manual  of  Greek  Literature  from  Homer  to  Theocritus. 
Barnett,  The  Greek  Drama  (Primer).  Wright,  Masterpieces  of  Greek 
Literature.  MovLTon,  Aticient  Classical  Drama  ;  for  teachers.  Donald- 
son, The  Theatre  of  the  Greeks ;  a  treatise  on  the  history  and  exhibition 
of  the  Greek  drama.     Symonds,  Sttcdies  of  the  Greek  Poets. 

Topics  for  Special  Study.  —  i.  The  Antigone.  2.  The  orators  Lysias 
and  Isocrates.  3.  The  Odes  of  Pindar.  4.  The  idea  of  Fate  in  the 
Greek  drama. 


CHAPTER   XXX 
GREEK  PHILOSOPHY  AND   SCIENCE 

347.  The  Seven  Sages ;  the  Forerunners.  —  About  the  sixth  cen- 
tury B.C.  there  hved  in  different  parts  of  Hellas  many  persons  of 
real  or  reputed  originality  and  wisdom.  Among  these  were  seven 
men,  called  the  Seven  Sages,  who  held  the  place  of  preeminence.-^ 
To  them  belongs  the  distinction  of  having  first  aroused  the  Greek 
intellect  to  philosophical  thought.  The  wise  sayings  —  such  as 
"Know  thyself"  and  "Nothing  in  excess"  —  attributed  to  them 
are  beyond  number. 

While  the  maxims  and  proverbs  ascribed  to  the  sages,  Hke  the 
so-called  proverbs  of  Solomon,  contain  a  vast  amount  of  practical 
wisdom,  they  do  not  constitute  philosophy  proper,  which  is  a  sys- 
tematic search  for  the  reason  and  causes  of  things.  They  form 
simply  the  introduction  or  prelude  to  Greek  philosophy. 

348.  The  Ionic  Natural  Philosophers ;  Thales.  —  The  first 
Greek  school  of  philosophy  grew  up  in  the  cities  of  Ionia,  in  Asia 
Minor,  where  almost  all  forms  of  Hellenic  culture  seem  to  have 
had  their  beginnings.  The  founder  of  the  school  was  Thales  of 
Miletus^  (b.  about  640  B.C.),  the  "father  of  Greek  philosophy." 

Thales  visited  Egypt,  and  it  is  probable  that  what  he  learned 
there  formed  the  basis  of  his  work  in  geometry  and  astronomy. 
He  is  said  to  have  taught  the  Egyptians  how  to  measure  the 
height  of  the  pyramids  by  means  of  their  shadows.  Legend  also 
credits  him  with  having  predicted  an  eclipse  of  the  sun. 

Thales  taught,  as  did  the  other  Ionic  philosophers,  that  there 
are  four  elements,  earth,  water,  air,  and  fire.^     Out  of  these  four 

1  As  in  the  case  of  the  Seven  Wonders  of  the  world,  ancient  writers  were  not 
always  agreed  as  to  what  names  should  be  accorded  the  honor  of  enrollment  in  the 
sacred  number.  Thales,  Solon,  Periander,  Cleobulus,  Chilo,  Bias,  and  Pittacus  are, 
however,  usually  reckoned  as  the  Seven  Wise  Men. 

2  Other  members  of  the  school  were  Anaximander,  Anaximenes,  and  Heraclitus. 
8  These  four  elements  answer  to  the  seventy  or  more  elements  of  modern  science. 


328  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY  AND   SCIENCE 

elements  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  were  supposed  to  be  made. 
But  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  which  of  the  four  ele- 
ments was  the  original  principle,  —  that  is,  the  one  from  which  all 
the  others  were  derived ;  for  the  Greek  mind  could  not  rest  until  it 
had  found  unity.    Thales  believed  water  to  be  the  original  element. 

349.  Pythagoras.  —  Pythagoras  (about  580-500  B.C.)  was  born 
on  the  island  of  Samos,  whence  his  title  of  the  "Samian  sage." 
The  most  of  his  later  years  were  passed  at  Croton,  in  Southern 
Italy,  where  he  became  the  founder  of  a  celebrated  brotherhood 
or  association. 

Somehow  the  personality  of  Pythagoras  deeply  impressed  the 
imagination  of  a  later  age,  and  he  became  the  subject  of  a  myth 
or  legend.  The  legend  avers  that  he  visited  Egypt  and  other 
lands  of  the  Orient,  and  thus  became  versed  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
the  East.  It  represents  him  later  in  the  midst  of  his  disciples  at 
Croton,  eliciting  admiration  and  reverence  through  studied  pecu- 
liarities of  dress  and  manner.  It  tells  how  his  pupils,  in  the  first 
years  of  their  novitiate,  were  never  allowed  to  look  upon  their 
master ;  how  they  listened  to  his  lectures  from  behind  a  curtain ; 
and  how  in  debate  they  used  no  other  argument  than  the  words 
Ipse  dixit,  *'  he  himself  said  so."  It  is  to  Pythagoras,  according 
to  the  legend,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  word  philosopher. 
Being  asked  of  what  he  was  master,  he  replied  that  he  was  simply 
a  "  philosopher,"  that  is,  a  "  lover  of  wisdom." 

In  astronomy  the  Pythagoreans  —  it  is  impossible  to  separate 
the  teachings  of  Pythagoras  himself  from  those  of  his  disciples 
—  held  views  which  anticipated  by  two  thousand  years  those 
of  Copernicus  and  his  school.  They  taught  that  the  earth  is  a 
sphere,  and  that  it,  together  with  the  other  planets,  revolves 
about  a  central  globe  of  fire,  '■'■  the  hearth  or  altar  of  the  universe." 

From  the  Pythagorean  school  comes  the  pretty  conceit  of  the 
"  music  of  the  spheres."  They  imagined  that  the  heavenly  bodies 
were  arranged  in  space  at  such  intervals  from  each  other  as  to 
form  a  sort  of  musical  scale,  and  that  by  their  swift  motion  they 
produced  harmonious  notes.  This  celestial  melody,  however,  was 
too  refined  for  mortal  ears. 


EMPEDOCLES   AND    DEMOCRITUS 


329 


The  Pythagoreans  were  reformers  as  well  as  philosophers. 
Their  zeal  in  reforming  society  and  the  state  involved  them  in 
the  pohtical  contentions  of  the  time,  and  this  resulted  at  last 
in  the  disruption  of  the  brotherhood.  But  the  doctrines  of  the 
school  lived  on  long  after  the  break-up  of  the  Italian  association 
and  exercised  a  great  influence  upon  later  systems  of  thought. 

350.  Empedocles  and  Democritus.  —  In  the  teachings  of  Empedo- 
cles  (about  492-432  B.C.)  and  Democritus  (about  460-370  b.c.) 
we  meet  with  many  speculations  respecting  the  constitution  of 
matter  and  the  origin  of  things  which  are  startHngly  similar  to 
some  of  the  doctrines  held  by  modern  scientists.  Empedocles 
has  been  called  "  the  father  of  the  evolution  idea."  Like  the 
evolutionists  of  to-day,  he  taught  that  the  higher  forms  of  life 
arise  out  of  the  lower.  Democritus,  like  modern  physicists,  con- 
ceived all  things  to  be  composed  of  invisible  atoms,  all  alike  in 
quality  but  differing  in  form  and  combination. 

351.  Anaxagoras. — Anaxagoras  (5oo-?427  b.c.)  was  the  first 
Greek  philosopher  who  made  mind  (1/01)9),  instead  of  necessity 
or  chance,  the  arranging  and  harmonizing  force  of  the  universe. 
"  Reason  rules  the  world"  was  his  first  maxim.  This  proposition 
marks  a  turning  point  in  Greek  philosophy.  It  based  it  upon  the 
same  fundamental  conception  as  that  upon  which  the  Hebrew  phi- 
losophy of  the  world  rested,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  union  of 
these  two  systems  of  thought  four  centuries  later  at  Alexandria. 

Anaxagoras  was  the  teacher  in  philosophy  of  Pericles,  and  it  is 
certain  that  that  statesman  was  greatly  influenced  by  the  liberal 
views  of  the  philosopher ;  for  in  his  general  conceptions  of  the 
universe,  Anaxagoras  was  far  in  advance  of  his  age.  He  ven- 
tured to  believe  that  the  moon  was  somewhat  like  the  earth,  and 
inhabited  ;  and  taught  that  the  sun  was  not  a  god,  but  a  glowing 
rock,  as  large,  probably,  as  the  Peloponnesus. 

But  for  his  temerity  the  philosopher  suffered  the  fate  of  Galileo 
in  a  later  age  ;  he  was  charged  with  impiety  and  exiled.  Yet  this 
did  not  disturb  the  composure  of  his  mind.  In  banishment  he 
said,  "  It  is  not  I  who  have  lost  the  Athenians,  but  the  Athenians 
who  have  lost  me," 


330  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY   AND    SCIENCE 

352.  The  Sophists.  — The  philosophers  of  whom  we  have  thus 
far  spoken  were  in  general  men  who  made  the  physical  universe 
the  subject  of  their  speculations.  Their  systems  of  thought  pos- 
sessed little  or  no  practical  value.  They  did  not  supply  motives 
for  right  living,  having  no  word  for  the  citizen  in  regard  to  his 
duties  god  ward  or  man  ward. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  however,  there  appeared 
in  Greece  a  new  class  of  philosophers,  or  rather  teachers,  called 
Sophists.'*  They  abandoned  in  despair  the  attempt  of  their  pred- 
ecessors to  solve  the  problems  of  the  physical  world, ^  and  devoted 
themselves  to  civic  matters  and  to  giving  instruction  in  rhetoric 
and  the  art  of  disputation. 

They  traveled  about  from  city  to  city,  and,  contrary  to  the 
usual  custom  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  took  fees  from  their 
pupils.  For  about  one  hundred  years  after  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century,  these  men  were  the  most  popular  and  prominent 
educators  in  Greece.  Notwithstanding  their  professions,  they 
were  in  general  teachers  of  superficial  knowledge,  who  cared 
more  for  the  dress  in  which  the  thought  was  arrayed  than  for 
the  thought  itself,  more  for  victory  than  for  truth.  The  better 
philosophers  of  the  time  despised  them,  and  applied  to  them 
many  harsh  epithets,  taunting  them  with  selling  wisdom  and 
accusing  them  of  boasting  that  they  could  "  make  the  worse 
appear  the  better  reason." 

353.  Socrates. — Volumes  would  not  contain  all  that  would 
be  both  instructive  and  interesting  respecting  the  teachings  and 
speculations  of  the  three  great  philosophers,  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
Aristotle.  We  can,  however,  accord  to  each  only  a  few  words. 
Of  these  three  eminent  thinkers,  Socrates  (469-399  B.C.),  though 
surpassed  in  grasp  of  intellect  by  both  Plato  and  Aristotle,  has 
the  firmest  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  world. 

Nature,  while  generous  to  the  philosopher  in  the  gifts  of  soul, 
was  unkind  to  him  in  the  matter  of  his  person.     His  face  was 

4  The  most  noted  of  the  Sophists  were  Protagoras,  Gorgias,  and  Prodicus. 

5  Not  until  the  rise  of  modern  science  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  physical  phe- 
nomena again  to  absorb  so  much  attention  as  they  did  in  the  earlier  schools  of  Hellas. 


SOCRATES  AND   PLATO 


331 


Ugly  as  a  satyr's,  so  that  he  invited  the  shafts  of  the  comic  poets 
of  his  time.  His  figure  is  said  to  have  been  the  most  ungainly, 
and  therefore  the  most  familiar,  of  any  upon  the  streets  of  Athens. 
He  loved  to  gather  a  little  circle  about  him  in  the  Agora  or  in 
the  streets,  and  then  to  draw  out  his  listeners  by  a  series  of 
ingenious  questions.  His  method  was  so  peculiar  to  himself 
that  it  has  received  the  designation  of  the  -  -  -  - 

"  Socratic  dialogue."  He  has  very  happily 
been  called  an  educator,  as  opposed  to  an 
instructor.  In  the  young  men  of  his  time 
Socrates  found  many  devoted  pupils.^ 

This  great  philosopher  believed  that  the 
proper  study  of  mankind  is  man, .his  favor- 
ite maxim  being,  "  Know  thyself  "  ;  hence 
he  is  said  to  have  brought  philosophy  from 
the  heavens  and  introduced  it  to  the  homes 
of  men. 

Socrates  taught  the  purest  system  of 
morals  that  the  world  had  yet  known,  and 
which  has  been  surpassed  only  by  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Great  Teacher.  He  thought  himself  to  be  restrained 
by  a  guardian  spirit  from  entering  upon  what  was  inexpedient 
or  wrong.  He  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  in 
a  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe,  but  sometimes  spoke  slight- 
ingly of  the  temples  and  the  popular  deities.  Of  his  prosecu- 
tion and  condemnation  to  death  on  the  charge  of  impiety,  and 
of  his  last  hours  with  his  devoted  disciples,  we  have  already 
spoken  (sec.  260). 

354.  Plato. — Plato  (427-347  B.C.),  "the  broad-browed,"  was 
a  philosopher  of  noble  birth,  before  whom  in  youth  opened  a 
brilliant  career  in  the  world  of  Greek  affairs ;  but,  coming  under 
the  influence  of  Socrates,  he  resolved  to  give  up  all  his  prospects 


Fig.  117.  —  Socrates 

(National  Museum, 

Naples) 


6  Socrates  was  unfortunate  in  his  domestic  relations.  Xanthippe,  his  mfe,  seems 
to  have  been  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind,  and  unable  to  sympathize  with  the 
abstracted  ways  of  her  husb:ind,  whose  life  at  home  she  at  times  made  very  uncom- 
fortable.    Her  name  has  been  handed  down  as  "  the  synonym  of  the  typical  scold." 


332 


GREEK   PHILOSOPHY  AND    SCIENCE 


in  politics  and  devote  himself  to  philosophy.  Upon  the  condem- 
nation and  death  of  his  master  he  went  into  voluntary  exile.  In 
foreign  lands  he  gathered  knowledge  and  met  with  varied  experi- 
ences (sees.  273  and  274).  He  finally  returned  to  Athens  and 
estabHshed  a  school  of  philosophy  in  the  Academy.  Here,  amid 
the  disciples  that  thronged  to  his  lectures,  he  passed  the  greater 
part  of  his  long  life  —  he  died  347  B.C.,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one 

years  —  laboring  incessantly  upon  the 
great  works  that  bear  his  name. 

Plato  imitated  in  his  writings 
Socrates'  method   in  conversation. 
The  discourse  is  carried  on  by  ques- 
tions  and   answers,  hence   the   term 
Dialogues  that  attaches  to  his  works. 
He  attributes   to  his  master,  Socra- 
tes, much  of  the  philosophy  that  he 
teaches;     yet    his    writings    are    all 
deeply  tinged  with  his  own  genius  and 
thought.     In  the  Republic  Plato  por- 
trays his  conception  of  an  ideal  state. 
The  Phcedo  is  a  record  of  the  last 
(National  Museum,  Naples)     conversation  of  Socrates  with  his  dis- 
ciples, —  an  immortal  argument  for  the  immortahty  of  the  soul. 

Plato  beHeved  not  only  in  a  future  hfe  (postexistence),  but 
also  in  preexistence ;  teaching  that  the  ideas  of  reason,  or  our 
intuitions,  are  reminiscences  of  a  past  experience."^  Plato's  doc- 
trines have  exerted  a  profound  influence  upon  all  schools  of  thought 
and  philosophies  since  his  day.  In  some  of  his  precepts  he  made 
a  close  approach  to  the  teachings  of  Christianity.     *'  We  ought 


Fig.  118. —  Plato 


7  In  the  following  lines  from  Wordsworth  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  Plato's  doctrine 

of  preexistence : 

"  Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting ; 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 
Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 

And  cometh  from  afar : 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come 
From  God,  who  is  our  home." —  Ode  on  Immortality. 


ARISTOTLE 


333 


to  become  like  God,"  he  said,  "  as  far  as  this  is  possible ;  and  to 
become  like  Him  is  to  become  holy  and  just  and  wise." 

355.  Aristotle.  — As  Socrates  was  surpassed  by  his  pupil  Plato, 
so  in  turn  was  Plato  excelled  by  his  disciple  Aristotle  (384- 
322  B.C.),  "the  master  of  those  who  know."  In  him  the  philo- 
sophical genius  of  the  Hellenic  intellect  reached  its  culmination. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  all  the  ages  since  his  time  have  pro- 
duced so  profound  and  powerful  an  intellect  as  his.  He  was 
born  in  the  Macedonian  city  of  Stagira,  and  hence  is  frequently 
called  the  "  Stagirite." 

After  studying  for  twenty  years 
in  the  school  of  Plato,  Aristotle 
accepted  the  invitation  of  Philip  II 
of  Macedon  to  become  the  precep- 
tor of  his  son,  the  young  prince 
Alexander  (sec.  285).  In  after 
years  Alexander  became  the  liberal 
patron  of  his  tutor,  and,  besides 
giving  him  large  sums  of  money, 
aided  him  in  his  scientific  studies 
by  sending  him  collections  of  plants 
and  animals  gathered  on  his  distant 
expeditions. 

At  Athens  the  great  philosopher 
delivered  his  lectures  while  walking 
about  beneath  the  trees  and  por- 
ticoes of  the  Lyceum ;  hence  the 
term  "peripatetic"  (from  the 
Gr  ttk  perip  a  tein,  "to  walk  about")  applied  to  his  philosophy. 

Among  the  productions  of  his  fertile  intellect  are  works  on 
rhetoric,  logic,  poetry,  morals  and  poUtics,  physics  and  meta- 
physics. For  centuries  his  works  were  studied  and  copied  and 
commented  upon  by  both  European  and  Asiatic  scholars,  in  the 
schools  of  Athens  and  Rome,  of  Alexandria  and  Constantinople. 
Until  the  time  of  Bacon  in  England,  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years,  Aristotle  ruled  over  the  realm  of  mind  with  a  despotic 


Fig.  119.  —  Aristotle 
(Spada  Palace,  Rome) 


334  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY  AND    SCIENCE 

sway.  All  teachers  and  philosophers  acknowledged  him  as  their 
guide  and  master. 

356.  Zeno  and  the  Stoics.  —  We  are  now  approaching  the 
period  when  the  poHtical  life  of  Hellas  was  failing,  and  was 
being  fast  overshadowed  by  the  greatness  of  Rome.  But  the 
intellectual  Hfe  of  the  Greek  race  was  by  no  means  echpsed  by 
the  calamity  that  ended  its  political  existence.  For  centuries 
after  that  event  the  poets,  scholars,  and  philosophers  of  this 
intellectual  people  led  a  brilliant  career  in  the  schools  and  uni- 
versities of  the  Roman  world. 

From  among  all  the  philosophers  of  this  long  period  we  can 
select  for  brief  mention  only  a  few.  And  first  we  shall  speak 
of  Zeno  and  Epicurus,  who  are  noted  as  founders  of  schools  of 
philosophy  that  exerted  a  vast  influence  upon  both  the  thought 
and  the  conduct  of  many  centuries. 

Zeno,  founder  of  the  celebrated  school  of  the  Stoics,  lived  in 
the  third  century  before  our  era  (about  340-265  B.C.).  He  taught 
at  Athens  in  a  public  porch  (in  Greek,  stoci),  from  which  circum- 
stance comes  the  name  applied  to  his  disciples. 

The  Stoical  philosophy  was  the  outgrowth,  in  part  at  least,  of 
that  of  the  Cynics,  a  sect  of  most  rigid  and  austere  morals.  The 
typical  representative  of  this  sect  is  found  in  Diogenes,  who  lived, 
so  the  story  goes,  in  a  wine  cask  {rciQoi),  and  went  about  Athens 
by  daylight  with  a  lantern,  in  search,  as  he  said,  of  a  man.  The 
Cynics  were  simply  a  race  of  pagan  hermits. 

Zeno  adopted  all  that  was  good  in  the  code  of  the  Cynics,  and, 
adding  to  this  everything  that  he  found  of  value  in  the  systems 
of  other  philosophers,  formed  therefrom  his  new  philosophy.  It 
became  a  favorite  system  of  thought  with  certain  classes  of  the 
Romans,  and  under  its  teachings  and  doctrines  were  nourished 
some  of  the  purest  and  loftiest  characters  produced  by  the  pagan 
world.  In  many  of  its  teachings  it  anticipated  Christian  doctrines, 
and  was,  in  the  philosophical  world,  a  very  important  preparation 
for  Christianity. 

The  Stoics  inculcated  virtue  for  the  sake  of  itself.  They  be- 
lieved —  and  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  frame  a  better  creed 


EPICURUS   AND   THE    EPICUREANS  335 

—  that  "man's  chief  business  here  is  to  do  his  duty."  Bodily 
pain,  they  taught,  was  a  matter  of  no  moment ;  and  they  schooled 
themselves  to  bear  with  composure  any  lot  that  destiny  might 
appoint.  Any  sign  of  emotion  on  account  of  calamity  was  con- 
sidered unmanly  and  unphilosophical.  Thus  a  certain  Stoic,  when 
told  of  the  sudden  death  of  his  son,  is  said  merely  to  have 
remarked,  "  Well,  I  never  imagined  that  I  had  given  life  to  an 
immortal." 

357.  Epicurus  and  the  Epicureans.  —  Epicurus  (341-270  B.C.), 
who  was  a  contemporary  of  Zeno,  taught,  in  opposition  to  the 
Stoics,  that  pleasure  is  the  highest  good.  He  recommended 
virtue,  indeed,  but  only  as  a  means  for  the  attainment  of  pleas- 
ure ;  whereas  the  Stoics  made  virtue  an  end  in  itself.  In  other 
words,  Epicurus  said,  "  Be  virtuous,  because  virtue  will  bring  you 
the  greatest  amount  of  happiness";  Zeno  said,  "Be  virtuous, 
because  you  ought  to  be." 

Epicurus  had  many  followers  in  Greece,  and  his  doctrines 
were  eagerly  embraced  by  many  among  the  Romans  during  the 
corrupt  and  licentious  period  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Many  of 
these  disciples  carried  the  doctrines  of  their  master  to  an  excess 
that  he  himself  would  have  been  the  first  to  condemn.  Allow- 
ing full  indulgence  to  every  appetite  and  passion,  their  whole 
philosophy  was  expressed  in  the  proverb,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die." 

358.  The  Skeptics :  Pyrrho.  —  About  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century  B.C.  skepticism  became  widespread  in  Greece.  It 
seemed  as  though  men  were  losing  faith  in  everything.  Many 
circumstances  had  worked  together  to  bring  about  this  state  of 
universal  unbelief.  A  wider  knowledge  of  the  world  had  caused 
many  to  lose  their  faith  in  the  stories  and  legends  of  the  old 
mythologies.  The  existence  of  so  many  systems  of  philosophy 
caused  men  to  doubt  the  truth  of  any  of  them.  The  conquests 
of  Alexander,  by  bringing  the  Greek  mind  in  contact  with  the 
strange  Asiatic  systems  of  belief,  tended  powerfully  to  deepen 
and  confirm  this  feeling  of  bewilderment  and  uncertainty.  Many 
thoughtful  minds  were  hopelessly  asking,  "What  is  truth?  " 


336  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY  AND   SCIENCE 

Pyrrho  (about  365-275  B.C.)  was  the  "doubting  Thomas"  of 
the  Greeks.  He  doubted  everything,  and  declared  that  the 
great  problems  of  the  universe  could  not  be  solved.  It  was 
the  duty  of  man  and  the  part  of  wisdom  to  entertain  no  posi- 
tive judgment  on  any  matter,  and  thus  to  insure  serenity  and 
peace  of  mind. 

The  disciples  of  Pyrrho  went  to  absurd  lengths  in  their  skep- 
ticism, some  of  them  even  saying  that  they  asserted  nothing, 
not  even  that  they  asserted  nothing.  They  doubted  whether 
they  doubted. 

359.  The  Neoplatonists. — Neoplatonism  was  a  blending  of 
Greek  philosophy  and  Oriental  religious  feehng.  Its  representa- 
tives were  at  one  and  the  same  time  Greek  thinkers  and  Hebrew 
seers.  The  center  of  this  last  movement  in  Greek  philosophical 
thought  was  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  the  meeting  place,  in  the  clos- 
ing centuries  of  the  ancient  world,  of  the  East  and  the  West. 

While  the  Neoplatonists  were  laboring  to  restore,  in  modified 
form,  the  ancient  Greek  philosophy  and  worship,  the  teachers  of 
Christianity  were  fast  winning  the  world  over  to  a  new  faith.  The 
two  systems  came  into  deadly  conflict.  Christianity  triumphed. 
With  the  triumph  of  the  Christian  Fathers  the  work  of  the  Greek 
philosophers,  as  living  personal  teachers,  was  ended ;  but  their 
systems  of  thought  will  never  cease  to  attract  and  influence  the 
best  minds  of  the  race. 

Science  among  the  Greeks 

The  contributions  of  the  Greek  observers  to  the  physical  sci- 
ences have  laid  us  under  no  small  obligation  to  them.  Some  of 
those  whom  we  have  classed  as  philosophers  were  careful  stu- 
dents of  nature,  and  might  be  called  scientists.  The  great 
philosopher  Aristotle  wrote  some  valuable  works  on  anatomy 
and  natural  history.  From  his  time  onward  the  sciences  were 
pursued  with  much  zeal  and  success.  Especially  did  the  later 
Greeks  do  much  good  and  lasting  work  in  the  mathematical  sci- 
ences, basing  their  labors  upon  what  had  already  been  achieved 
by  the  Egyptians  and  the  Chaldeans. 


GREEK  SCIENCE  337 

360.  Mathematics:  Euclid  and  Archimedes.  —  Alexandria,  in 
Egypt,  became  the  seat  of  the  most  celebrated  school  of  math- 
ematics of  antiquity.  Here,  under  Ptolemy  Soter,  flourished 
Euclid,  the  great  geometer,  whose  work  forms  the  basis  of  the 
science  of  geometry  as  taught  in  our  schools  to-day.  Ptolemy 
himself  was  his  pupil.  The  royal  student,  however,  seems  to  have 
disliked  the  severe  application  required  to  master  the  problems 
of  Euclid,  and  asked  his  teacher  if  there  was  not  some  easier  way. 
Euclid  replied,  "There  is  no  royal  road  to  geometry." 

In  the  third  century  B.C.,  Syracuse,  in  Sicily,  was  the  home  of 
Archimedes,  the  greatest  mathematician  that  the  Grecian  world 
produced.  His  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  lever  is  indicated 
by  the  oft-quoted  boast  that  he  made  to  Hiero :  "  Give  me  a 
place  to  stand,  and  I  will  move  the  world." 

361.  Astronomy  and  Geography.  —  Among  ancient  Greek 
astronomers  and  geographers  the  names  of  Aristarchus,  Eratos- 
thenes, Hipparchus,  Strabo,  Pausanias,  and  Claudius  Ptolemy  are 
distinguished. 

Aristarchus  of  Samos,  who  lived  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  held 
that  the  earth  revolves  about  the  sun  as  a  fixed  center,  and  rotates 
on  its  own  axis.  He  was  the  Greek  Copernicus.  But  his  theory 
was  rejected  by  his  contemporaries  and  successors. 

Eratosthenes  (b.  about  276  B.C.)  might  be  called  an  astronomi- 
cal geographer.  His  greatest  achievement  was  the  fairly  accurate 
determination  of  the  circumference  of  the  earth  by  means  of  the 
different  lengths  of  the  shadow  cast  by  the  midday  sun  in  Upper 
and  in  Lower  Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  summer  solstice. 

Hipparchus,  who  flourished  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  b.c,  was,  through  his  careful  observations,  the  real  founder 
of  scientific  astronomy.  He  calculated  eclipses,  observed  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  catalogued  the  stars,  and  wrote  several 
astronomical  works  of  a  really  scientific  character. 

Strabo  was  born  about  half  a  century  before  our  era.  He 
traveled  over  a  large  part  of  the  world,  and  describes,  as  an  eye- 
witness, the  scenery,  the  productions,  and  the  peoples  of  all  the 
countries  known  to  the  ancients. 


338  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY  AND    SCIENCE 

About  two  centuries  after  Strabo's  time,  Pausanias  wrote  his 
Tour  of  Greece^  a  sort  of  guidebook,  which  is  crowded  with 
invaluable  little  items  of  interest  respecting  all  the  places  best 
worth  visiting  in  Greece. 

Claudius  Ptolemy  lived  in  Egypt  about  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  after  Christ.  His  great  reputation  is  due  not 
so  much  to  his  superior  genius  as  to  the  fortunate  circumstance 
that  a  vast  work  ^  compiled  by  him  preserved  and  transmitted  to 
later  times  almost  all  the  knowledge  of  the  ancient  world  on 
astronomical  and  geographical  subjects.  In  this  way  it  has  hap- 
pened that  his  name  has  become  attached  to  various  doctrines 
and  views  respecting  the  universe,  though  these  probably  were 
not  originated  by  him.  The  phrase  "  Ptolemaic  System,"  how- 
ever, links  his  name  inseparably,  whether  the  honor  be  fairly  his 
or  not,  with  that  conception  of  the  solar  system  set  forth  in  his 
works,  which  continued  to  be  the  received  theory  from  his  time 
until  Copernicus,  fourteen  centuries  later. 

Ptolemy  combated  the  theory  of  Aristarchus  in  regard  to  the 
rotation  and  revolution  of  the  earth;  yet  he  believed  the  earth 
to  be  a  globe,  and  supported  this  view  by  exactly  the  same  argu- 
ments that  we  to-day  use  to  prove  the  doctrine. 

362 .  Medicine  and  Anatomy.  —  Hippocrates  (b.  about  460  B.C.) 
did  so  much  to  emancipate  the  art  of  healing  from  superstition 
and  ignorance,  and  to  make  it  a  scientific  study,  that  he  is  called 
the  "  Father  of  Medicine."  His  central  doctrine  was  that  there 
are  laws  of  disease  as  well  as  laws  of  healthy  Hfe.  The  works 
ascribed  to  him  form  the  basis  of  modern  medical  science.^ 

The  advance  of  the  science  of  anatomy  among  the  ancient 
Greeks  was  hindered  by  their  feehngs  respecting  the  body,  which 
caused  them  to  look  with  horror  upon  its  deliberate  mutilation. 
Surprising  as  the  statement  may  appear,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  Aristotle,  "  the  greatest  of  all  thinkers  in  antiquity,  the  son 

8  Known  to  mediaeval  Europe  by  its  Arabian  title  Almagest^  meaning  "  the  greatest." 

9  The  most  noted  Greek  physician  after  Hippocrates  was  Galenus  Claudius,  or 
simply  Galen  (about  a.d.  130-193).  He  wrote  a  multitude  of  books,  which  gathered 
up  all  the  medical  and  anatomical  knowledge  of  his  time,  and  which  were  greatly 
prized  and  carefully  studied  by  the  medical  students  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


REFERENCES  339 

of  a  physician,  especially  educated  in  physical  science,  and  well 
acquainted  for  the  time  with  the  dissection  of  animals,  regarded 
the  brain  as  a  lump  of  cold  substance,  quite  unfit  to  be  the  seat 
and  organ  of  the  sensus  communis}^  This  important  office  he 
ascribed  rather  to  the  heart.  The  brain  he  considered  to  be 
chiefly  useful  as  the  source  of  fluids  for  lubricating  the  eyes,  etc."  ^^ 
At  Alexandria,  however,  in  the  later  period,  under  the  influence 
doubtless  of  Egyptian  practices  in  embalming,  the  Greek  physi- 
cians greatly  promoted  the  knowledge  of  anatomy  not  only  by 
the  dissection  of  dead  bodies  but  even  by  the  vivisection  of  crim- 
inals condemned  to  death. ^^ 

Selections  from  the  Sources.  —  Plato,  Republic,  ii.  379  and  380,  on 
God  as  the  author  of  good;  and  Phcedo,  on  immortality. 

References  (Modern).  —  Grote  (ten-volume  ed.),  vol.  iv,  pp.  65-94; 
Ionic  Philosophers  and  Pythagoras;  vol.  vii,  pp.  32-172;  the  Sophists  and 
Socrates.  Osborn,  From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin,  pp.  29-68;  traces  the 
development  of  the  idea  of  evolution  among  the  Greek  philosophers. 
Burt,  A  Brief  History  of  Greek  Philosophy.  Marshall,  A  Short  His- 
tory of  Greek  Philosophy.  Ferrier,  Lectures  on  Greek  Philosophy.  Mayor, 
Sketch  of  Ancient  Philosophy.  Turner,  History  of  Philosophy,  chaps,  i-xx. 
Lewes,  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy  (first  part).  Davidson,  The 
Education  of  the  Greek  People,  chap,  v;  on  the  teaching  of  Socrates.  Toy, 
Judaism  and  Christianity.  Pater,  Plato  and  Platonism  ;  and  Zeller, 
The  Stoics,  Epictireans,  and  Sceptics,  may  be  taken  up  by  the  teacher. 

Topics  for  Special  Study. —  i.  The  Sophists.  2.  Plato's  Republic. 
3.  The  Stoics.  4.  The  trial  and  condemnation  of  Socrates.  5.  Neopla- 
tonism  in  Alexandria. 

10  The  thinking  faculty,  the  mind. 

11  Ladd's  Elements  of  Physiological  Psychology  (1887),  p.  240. 

12  Some  practices  among  the  Greek  physicians  strike  us  as  peculiar.  The  follow- 
ing is  too  characteristically  Greek  to  be  omitted.  Plato,  in  the  Gorgias,  tells  us  that 
sometimes  the  doctor  took  a  Sophist  along  with  him  to  persuade  the  patient  to  take 
his  prescription.  Professor  Mahaffy  comments  thus  upon  this  practice :  "  This  was 
done  because  it  was  the  fashion  to  discuss  everything  in  Greece,  and  people  were  not 
satisfied  to  submit  silently  to  anybody's  prescription,  either  in  law,  politics,  religion, 
or  medicine." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 


SOCIAL  LIFE   OF  THE   GREEKS 


363.  Education.  —  Education  at  Sparta,  where  it  was  chiefly 
gymnastic,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  state  affair  (sec.  158) ;  but  at 
Athens  and  throughout  Greece  generally,  the  youth  were  trained 
in  private  schools.  These  schools  were  of  all  grades,  ranging 
from  those  kept  by  the  most  obscure  teachers,  who  gathered 
their  pupils  in  some  recess  of  the  street,  to  those  estabhshed  in 

the  Athenian  Acad- 
emy and  Lyceum  by 
such  philosophers 
as  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle. 

It  was  only  the 
boys  who  received 
education.  These 
Grecian  boys,  Pro- 
fessor Mahaffy  im- 
agines, were  "  the 
At  all  events,  we  may 


Fig.  120.  —  A  Greek  School 
(From  a  vase  painting) 


most  attractive  the  world  has  ever  seen." 
beheve  that  they  were  trained  more  carefully  and  delicately  than 
the  youth  among  any  other  people  before  or  since  the  days  of 
Hellenic  culture. 

In  the  nursery  the  boy  was  taught  the  beautiful  myths  and 
stories  of  the  national  mythology  and  religion.^     At  about  seven 

1  At  the  birth  of  a  child,  many  customs  of  a  significant  character  were  care- 
fully observed.  Thus  at  Sparta  the  new-born  infant  was  first  cradled  on  a  shield, 
which  symbolized  the  martial  life  of  the  Spartan  citizen ;  while  at  Athens  the  child 
was  laid  upon  a  mantle  in  which  was  wrought  the  aegis  of  Athena,  by  which  act 
was  emblemized  and  invoked  the  protection  of  that  patron  goddess.  Infanticide  was 
almost  universally  practiced  throughout  Greece.  (At  Thebes,  however,  the  exposure 
of  children  was  prohibited  by  severe  laws.)    Such  philosophers  as  Plato  and  Aristotle 

340 


EDUCATION  341 

he  entered  school,  being  led  to  and  from  the  place  of  training  by 
an  old  slave,  who  bore  the  name  of  "  pedagogue,"  which  in  Greek 
means  a  guide  or  leader  of  boys  —  not  a  teacher.  His  studies 
were  grammar,  music,  and  gymnastics,  the  aim  of  the  course  being 
to  secure  a  symmetrical  development  of  mind  and  body  alike. 

Grammar  included  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic;  music, 
which  embraced  a  wide  range  of  mental  accompHshments,  trained 
the  boy  to  appreciate  the  masterpieces  of  the  great  poets,  to 
contribute  his  part  to  the  musical  diversions  of  private  entertain- 
ments, and  to  join  in  the  sacred  choruses  and  in  the  paean  of 
the  battlefield.  The  exercises  of  the  palestrae  and  the  gymnasia 
trained  him  for  the  Olympic  contests,  or  for  those  sterner  hand- 
to-hand  battle  struggles  in  which  so  much  depended  upon  per- 
sonal strength  and  dexterity. 

Upon  reaching  maturity  the  youth  was  enrolled  in  the  list  of 
citizens.  But  his  graduation  from  school  was  his  "  commence- 
ment" in  a  much  more  real  sense  than  with  the  average  modern 
graduate.  Never  was  there  a  people  besides  the  Greeks  whose 
daily  life  was  so  emphatically  a  discipline  in  liberal  culture.  The 
schools  of  the  philosophers,  the  debates  of  the  popular  assem- 
bly, the  practice  of  the  law  courts,  the  masterpieces  of  a  divine 
art,  the  rehgious  processions,  the  representations  of  an  unrivaled 
stage,  the  Panhellenic  games,  —  all  these  were  splendid  and  effi- 
cient educational  agencies,  which  produced  and  maintained  a 
standard  of  average  intelligence  and  culture  among  the  citizens 
of  the  Greek  cities  that  probably  has  never  been  attained  among 
any  other  people  on  the  earth.  Freeman,  quoted  approvingly  by 
Mahaffy,  says   that  "  the  average  inteUigence  of  the  assembled 

saw  nothing  in  the  custom  to  condemn.  Among  the  Spartans,  as  we  have  already 
learned  (sec.  158),  the  state  determined  what  infants  might  be  preserved,  condemning 
the  weakly  or  ill-formed  to  be  cast  out  to  die.  At  Athens  and  in  other  states  the 
right  to  expose  his  child  was  given  to  the  father.  The  infant  was  abandoned  in  some 
desert  place,  or  left  in  some  frequented  spot  in  the  hope  that  it  might  be  picked  up 
and  cared  for.  Greek  literature,  like  that  of  every  other  people  of  antiquity,  is  filled 
with  stories  and  dramas,  all  turning  upon  points  afforded  by  this  common  practice. 
The  career  of  Sargon  of  Agade,  of  Cyrus  the  Great  of  Persia,  of  the  Hebrew  Moses, 
of  CEdipus  of  Thebes,  of  Romulus  and  Remus  of  Roman  legend,  and  a  hundred  others, 
are  all  prefaced  by  the  same  story  of  exposure  and  fortunate  rescue. 


342  SOCIAL   LIFE   OF   THE   GREEKS 

Athenian  citizens  was  higher   than   that  of  our   [the   English] 
House  of  Commons." 

364.  Social  Position  of  Woman.  — Although  there  are  in  Greek 
literature  some  exquisitely  beautiful  portraitures  of  ideal  woman- 
hood, still  the  general  tone  of  the  literature  betrays  a  deep  con- 
tempt for  woman,  which  Symonds  regards  as  "  the  greatest  social 
blot  upon  the  brilliant  but  imperfect  civilization  of  the  Greeks." 
Thucydides  quotes  with  seeming  approval  the  Greek  proverb, 
"  That  woman  is  best  who  is  least  spoken  of  among  men,  whether 
for  good  or  for  evil." 

This  unworthy  conception  of  woman  of  course  consigned  her  to 
a  narrow  and  inferior  place  in  the  Greek  home.  Her  position 
may  be  defined  as  being  about  halfway  between  Oriental  seclusion 
and  modern  or  Western  freedom.  Her  main  duties  were  to  cook 
and  spin,  and  to  oversee  the  domestic  slaves,  of  whom  she  herself 
was  practically  one.  In  the  fashionable  society  of  Ionian  cities 
she  was  seldom  allowed  to  appear  in  public,  or  to  meet,  even  in 
her  own  house,  the  male  friends  of  her  husband.  In  Sparta,  how- 
ever, and  in  Dorian  states  generally,  she  was  accorded  unusual 
freedom,  and  was  a  really  important  factor  in  society. 

The  low  position  generally  assigned  the  wife  in  the  home  had  a 
most  disastrous  effect  upon  Greek  morals.  She  could  exert  no 
such  elevating  or  refining  influence  as  she  exercises  in  the  modern 
home.  The  men  were  led  to  seek  social  and  intellectual  sym- 
pathy and  companionship  outside  the  family  circle,  among  a  class 
of  talented  and  often  highly  cultured  women  known  as  Hetaerae. 

As  the  most  noted  and  brilliant  representative  of  this  class  stands 
Aspasia,  the  friend  of  Pericles.  Her  conversation  possessed  at- 
traction for  the  most  prominent  and  accomplished  men  of  Athens, 
such  persons  as  Socrates  and  Anaxagoras  often  assembling  at  her 
house.  Yet  the  influence  of  this  class  was  most  harmful  to -social 
morality,  so  that  to  the  degradation  of  woman  in  the  home  may 
be  traced  the  source  of  the  most  serious  stain  that  rests  upon 
Greek  civilization. 

365.  Friendship  among  the  Greeks. — From  speaking  of  the 
inferior  rank  assigned  woman  in  the  Greek  home,  we  are  led  by 


THEATRICAL   ENTERTAINMENTS  343 

a  natural  transition  to  speak  of  Greek  friendship  between  men. 
While  it  seems  quite  certain  that  that  romantic  sentiment  to  which 
we  give  distinctively  the  name  of  love  was  not  the  same  universal 
and  absorbing  passion  among  the  Greeks  that  it  is  among  mod- 
ern civilized  peoples,  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  ancient  Greeks 
possessed  a  capacity  for  friendship  between  man  and  man  such 
as  is  rarely  or  never  seen  among  the  men  of  modern  times.  It 
would  scarcely  be  incorrect  to  say  that  the  Greek  men  "fell 
in  love"  with  each  other.  An  ardent  and  romantic  attachment 
sprang  up  between  companions,  which  possessed  all  the  higher 
elements  of  that  chivalrous  sentiment  which  the  modern  man 
seems  capable  of  entertaining  only  for  one  of  the  opposite  sex. 

Greek  literature  and  history  afford  innumerable  instances  of 
this  wonderful  and  happy  capacity  of  the  Greeks  for  friendship. 
The  memory  easily  recalls  the  Homeric  picture  of  the  friend- 
ship between  Achilles  and  Patroclus ;  the  attachment,  stronger 
than  death,  between  Damon  and  Pythias ;  the  friendship  of  the 
patriot  heroes  Pelopidas  and  Epaminondas,  and  of  Alexander  and 
Hephsestion. 

366.  Theatrical  Entertainments.  —  Among  the  ancient  Greeks 
the  theater  was  a  state  establishment,  "  a  part  of  the  constitution." 
This  arose  from  the  rehgious  origin  and  character  of  the  drama 
(sec.  334),  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  popular  worship  being 
the  care  and  concern  of  the  state.  Theatrical  performances, 
being  religious  acts,  were  presented  only  during  religious  festivals, 
—  certain  festivals  observed  in  honor  of  Dionysus,  —  and  were 
attended  by  all  classes,  rich  and  poor,  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  women,  however,  except  the  Hetserse,  were,  it  would  seem, 
permitted  to  witness  tragedies  only;  the  comic  stage  was  too 
gross  to  allow  of  their  presence. 

The  upper  ranges  of  seats  in  the  theater  were  reserved  for  the 
women ;  the  chairs  bordering  the  orchestra  were  for  the  officers 
of  the  state  and  other  persons  of  distinction ;  while  the  interven- 
ing tiers  of  seats  were  occupied  by  the  general  audience.  The 
spectators  sat  under  the  open  sky ;  and  the  pieces  followed  one 
after  the  other  in  close  succession  from  early  morning  till  nightfall. 


344  SOCIAL   LIFE   OF  THE   GREEKS 

While  the  better  class  of  actors  were  highly  honored,  ordinary 
players  were  held  in  very  low  esteem,  in  which  matter  the  Greek 
stage  presents  a  parallel  to  that  of  England  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. And  as  in  the  Elizabethan  age  the  writers  of  plays  were 
frequently  also  the  performers,  so  in  Greece,  particularly  during 
the  early  period  of  the  drama,  the  author  often  became  an  actor, 
and  assisted  in  the  presentation  of  his  own  pieces.  Still  another 
parallel  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  female  parts  in  the  Greek 
dramas,  as  in  the  early  Enghsh  theater,  were  taken  by  men. 

The  stage  machinery  of  the  Greek  theater  and  the  costumes 
of  the  actors  were  ingenious  and  elaborate.  There  were  mov- 
able scenes;  trapdoors  and  various  machines  for  introducing 
the  infernal  and  celestial  divinities  and  swinging  them  through 
the  air ;  contrivances  for  imitating  all  the  familiar  sounds  of  the 
country,  the  roar  and  crash  of  storm  and  thunder,  and  all  the 
noises  that  are  counterfeited  on  the  modern  stage.  The  tragic 
actor  increased  his  height  and  size  by  wearing  thick-soled  bus- 
kins, an  enormous  mask,  and  padded  garments.  The  actor  in 
comedy  wore  thin-soled  slippers,  or  socks.  The  sock  being  thus 
a  characteristic  part  of  the  make-up  of  the  ancient  comic  actor, 
and  the  buskin  that  of  the  tragic  actor,  these  foot  coverings  have 
come  to  be  used  as  the  symbols  respectively  of  comedy  and 
tragedy,  as  in  the  familiar  lines  of  Dryden  : 

Great  Fletcher  never  treads  in  buskins  here, 
Nor  greater  Jonson  dares  in  socks  appear. 

The  theater  exerted  a  great  influence  upon  Greek  life.  It  per- 
formed for  ancient  Greek  society  somewhat  the  same  service  as 
that  rendered  to  modern  society  by  the  pulpit  and  the  press. 
During  the  best  days  of  Hellas  the  frequent  rehearsal  upon  the 
stage  of  the  chief  incidents  in  the  lives  of  the  gods  and  the  heroes 
served  to  deepen  and  strengthen  the  reUgious  faith  of  the  people  ; 
and  later,  when  with  the  Macedonian  the  days  of  decline  came, 
the  stage  was  one  of  the  chief  agents  in  the  diffusion  of  Greek 
literary  culture  over  the  world.  Theaters  arose  everywhere,  and 
it  was  chiefly  through  the  popular  representations  of  the  stage  that 


BANQUETS  AND   SYMPOSIA 


345 


a  knowledge  of  the  best  productions  of  Greek  literature  was  im- 
parted to  the  mixed  population  of  the  Hellenic  cities  of  Egypt  and 
Western  Asia,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities  of  Italy  as  well. 

367.  Banquets  and  Symposia.  —  Banquets  and  drinking  parties 
among  the  Greeks  possessed  some  features  which  set  them  apart 
from  similar  entertainments  among  other  people. 

The  banquet  proper  was  partaken,  in  later  times,  by  the  guests 
in  a  reclining  position,  upon  couches  or  divans  arranged  about 
the  table  in  the  Oriental  manner.  After  the  usual  courses  a  liba- 
tion was  poured 
out  and  a  hymn 
sung  in  honor  of 
the  gods,  and  then 
followed  that 
characteristic  part 
of  the  entertain- 
ment known  as  the 
*'  symposium." 

The  symposium 
was  "  the  intellec- 
tual side  of  the  feast."  It  consisted  of  general  conversation, 
riddles,  and  convivial  songs  rendered  to  the  accompaniment  of 
the  lyre  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Generally  professional  singers 
and  musicians,  dancing  girls,  jugglers,  and  jesters  were  called  in 
to  contribute  to  the  merrymaking.  All  the  while  the  wine  bowl 
circulated  freely,  the  rule  being  that  a  man  might  drink  "as  much 
as  he  could  carry  home  without  a  guide,  —  unless  he  were  far  gone 
in  years."  Here  also  the  Greeks  applied  their  maxim,  "  Never 
too  much."  Besotted  drunkenness,  though  by  no  means  unknown 
in  Greece,  was  always  regarded  as  a  most  disgraceful  thing. 

The  banqueters  usually  consumed  the  night  in  merrymaking, 
sometimes  being  broken  in  upon  from  the  street  by  other  bands 
of  revelers,  who  made  themselves  self-invited  guests. 

The  symposium  must  at  times,  when  the  conversation  was  sus- 
tained by  such  persons  as  Socrates  and  Aristophanes,  have  been 
"  a  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul  "  indeed.     Xenophon  in  his 


Fig.  121.  —  A  Banquet  Scene 


346  SOCIAL  LIFE   OF   THE   GREEKS 

Banquet  and  Plato  in  his  Symposium  have  each  left  us  a  striking 
report  of  such  an  entertainment. 

368.  Occupations.  —  The  enormous  body  of  slaves  in  ancient 
Greece  relieved  the  free  population  from  most  of  those  forms  of 
labor  classed  as  drudgery.  The  aesthetic  Greek  regarded  as  de- 
grading any  kind  of  manual  labor  that  marred  the  symmetry  or 
beauty  of  the  body. 

At  Sparta,  and  in  other  states  where  oligarchical  constitutions 
prevailed,  the  citizens  formed  a  sort  of  military  caste,  strikingly 
similar  to  the  military  aristocracy  of  feudal  Europe.  Their  chief 
occupation,  as  has  already  appeared,  was  martial  and  gymnastic 
exercises  and  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  The  Spartans, 
it  will  be  recalled,  were  forbidden  by  law  to  engage  in  trade.  In 
other  aristocratic  states,  as  at  Thebes,  a  man  by  engaging  in  trade 
disqualified  himself  for  full  citizenship. 

In  the  democratic  states,  however,  speaking  generally,  labor 
and  trade  were  regarded  with  less  contempt.  A  considerable 
portion  of  the  citizens  were  traders,  artisans,  and  farmers. 

Life  at  Athens  presented  some  peculiar  features.  All  Attica 
being  included  in  what  we  should  term  the  corporate  limits  of  the 
city,  the  roll  of  Athenian  citizens  included  a  large  body  of  well-to- 
do  farmers,  whose  residence  was  outside  the  city  walls.  The  Attic 
plains  and  the  slopes  of  the  encircling  hills  were  dotted  with 
beautiful  villas  and  inviting  farmhouses. 

And  then  Athens  being  the  head  of  a  great  empire  of  sub- 
ject cities,  a  large  number  of  Athenian  citizens  were  necessarily 
employed  as  salaried  officials  in  the  minor  positions  of  the  public 
service,  and  thus  politics  became  a  profession.  In  any  event, 
the  meetings  of  the  popular  assembly  and  the  discussion  of  mat- 
ters of  state  engrossed  more  or  less  of  the  time  and  attention  of 
every  citizen. 

Again,  the  great  Athenian  jury  courts  (sec.  229),  which  were 
busied  with  cases  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  gave  constant 
employment  to  nearly  one  fourth  of  the  citizens,  the  fee  that  the 
juryman  received  enabling  him  to  hve,  if  he  lived  narrowly,  with- 
out other  business.     It  is  said  that,  in  the  early  morning,  when 


SLAVERY  347 

the  jurymen  were  passing  through  the  streets  to  the  different 
courts,  Athens  appeared  Hke  a  city  wholly  given  up  to  the  single 
business  of  law.  Furthermore,  the  great  public  works,  such  as 
temples  and  commemorative  monuments,  which  were  in  constant 
process  of  erection,  afforded  employment  for  a  vast  number  of 
artists  and  skilled  workmen  of  every  class. 

In  the  Agora,  again,  at  any  time  of  the  day,  a  numerous  class 
might  have  been  found,  whose  sole  occupation,  as  in  the  case  of 
Socrates,  was  to  talk.  The  writer  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
was  so  impressed  with  this  feature  of  life  at  Athens  that  he  sum- 
marized the  habits  of  the  people  by  saying,  "  All  the  Athenians 
and  strangers  which  were  there  spent  their  time  in  nothing  else 
but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing." 

369.  Slavery.  —There  is  a  dark  side  to  Greek  hfe.  Hellenic 
art,  culture,  refinement  —  "these  good  things  were  planted,  hke 
exquisite  exotic  flowers,  upon  the  black,  rank  soil  of  slavery." 

.  Slaves  were  very  numerous  in  Greece.  No  exact  estimate  can 
be  made  of  their  number,  but  it  is  beheved  that  they  greatly  out- 
numbered the  free  population.  Almost  every  freeman  was  a  slave 
owner.  It  was  accounted  a  real  hardship  to  have  to  get  along 
with  less  than  half  a  dozen  slaves. 

"  This  large  class  of  slaves  was  formed  in  various  ways.  In  the 
prehistoric  period  the  fortunes  of  war  had  brought  the  entire 
population  of  whole  provinces  into  a  servile  condition,  as  in  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  Peloponnesus.  During  later  times,  the  ordinary 
captives  of  war  still  further  augmented  the  ranks  of  these  unfor- 
tunates. Their  number  was  also  largely  added  to  by  the  slave 
traffic  carried  on  with  the  barbarian  peoples  of  Asia.  Crimi- 
nals and  debtors,  too,  were  often  condemned  to  servitude ;  while 
foundlings  were  usually  brought  up  as  slaves. 

The  relation  of  master  and  slave  was  regarded  by  the  Greek 
as  being  not  only  a  legal  but  a  natural  one.  A  free  commu- 
nity, in  his  view,  could  not  exist  without  slavery.  It  formed  the 
natural  basis  of  both  the  family  and  the  state,  the  relation  of 
master  and  slave  being  regarded  as  "  strictly  analogous  to  the 
relation  of  soul  and  body."     Even  Aristotle  and  other  Greek 


348  SOCIAL  LIFE   OF   THE   GREEKS 

philosophers  approved  the  maxim  that  "  slaves  were  simply  do- 
mestic animals  possessed  of  intelligence."  ^  They  were  consid- 
ered just  as  necessary  in  the  economy  of  the  family  as  cooking 
utensils. 

In  general,  Greek  slaves  were  not  treated  harshly,  judging 
their  treatment  by  the  standard  of  humanity  that  prevailed  in 
antiquity.  Some  held  places  of  honor  in  the  family,  and  enjoyed 
the  confidence  and  even  the  friendship  of  their  master.  Yet  at 
Sparta,  where  slavery  assumed  the  form  of  serfdom,  the  lot  of  the 
slave  was  peculiarly  hard  and  unendurable. 

If  ever  slavery  was  justified  by  its  fruits,  it  was  in  Greece.  The 
brilliant  civilization  of  the  Greeks  was  its  product,  and  could  never 
have  existed  without  it.  As  one  truthfully  says,  "Without  the 
slaves  the  Attic  democracy  would  have  been  an  impossibility,  for 
they  alone  enabled  the  poor,  as  well  as  the  rich,  to  take  a  part  in 
public  affairs."  Relieving  the  citizen  of  all  drudgery,  the  system 
created  a  class  characterized  by  elegant  leisure,  refinement,  and 
culture. 

We  find  an  almost  exact  historical  parallel  to  all  this  in  the 
feudal  aristocracy  of  mediaeval  Europe.  Such  a  society  has  been 
well  likened  to  a  great  pyramid  whose  top  may  be  gilded  with 
light  while  its  base  lies  in  dark  shadows.  The  civiHzation  of 
ancient  Hellas  was  splendid  and  attractive,  but  it  rested  with  a 
crushing  weight  upon  all  the  lower  orders  of  Greek  society. 

2  This  harsh,  selfish  theory,  it  should  be  noted,  was  somewhat  modified  and 
relaxed  when  the  slave  class,  through  the  numerous  captives  of  the  unfortunate 
civil  wars,  came  to  be  made  up  in  considerable  part  of  cultured  Greeks,  instead  of 
being,  as  was  the  case  in  earlier  times,  composed  almost  exclusively  of  barbarians, 
or  of  inferior  branches  of  the  Hellenic  race,  between  whom  and  their  cultured 
masters  there  was  the  same  difference  in  mental  qualities  as  existed  between  the 
negro  slaves  and  their  masters  in  our  own  country.  The  sentiment  that  a  slave 
was  an  unfortunate  person,  rather  than  an  inferior  being,  came  to  prevail,  —  a  senti- 
ment which  aided  powerfully  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
universal  brotherhood  of  man. 


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References  (Modern).  —  Blumner,  The  Ho7?ie  Life  of  the  Ancient 
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Greek  and  Roman  Period.  3.  Daily  life  in  Athens.  4.  Greek  slavery. 
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Church,  A.  J.,  Greek  Story  and  Song.     N.Y.,  Macmillan.     1903. 

Pictures  from  Greek  Life  and  Story.     N.Y.,  Putnam.     1894. 

Stories  from  Homer.     N.Y.,  Crowell.     1901. 

Two  Thousand  Years  Ago.     London,  Blackie.     1886. 

Cox,  Sir  G.  W.,  The  Athenian  Empire.     London,  Longmans.     1897. 
A  General  History  of  Greece.     New  ed.     London,  Longmans.      1892. 

The  Greeks  and  the  Persians.     loth  ed.     Ditto.     1900. 

Lives  of  Greek  States?nen.     London,  Longmans.     1885,1886.     2  v. 

Creasy,  E.  S.,  The  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World.     N.Y.,  Harper. 
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Davidson,  T.,  Aristotle  and  Ancient  Educational  Ldeals.     N.Y.,  Scribner. 

The  Education  of  the  Greek  People.     N.Y.,  Appleton.     1894. 

Diehl,  C,  Excursions  in  Greece.     London,  Grevel.      1893. 

Dodge,  T.  A.,  Alexattder.     Boston,  Houghton.     1890.     (Great  Captains.) 
Donaldson,  J.  W.,  The  Theatre  of  the  Greeks.    4th  ed.    Cambridge  [Eng.], 

Deighton.     1 836. 
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Ferrier,  J.  F.,  Lectures  on  Greek  Philosophy.    Edinb.,  Blackwood.    1866.    2  v. 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  Greater  Greece  and  Greater  Britain.  Lond.,  Macmillan.  1886. 
Ynri\s2ieng\&x,  A.,  Masterpieces  of  Greek  Sculptiire.   Lond.,  Heinemann.   1885. 
Galton,  F.,  Hereditary  Genius.     London,  Macmillan.      1892. 
Gardner,  E.  A.,  Ancient  Athens.     N.Y.,  Macmillan.     1902. 

Handbook  of  Greek  Sculpture.     London,  Macmillan.      1897. 

Gardner,  P.,  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History.     London,  Murray.     1892. 
Gayley,  C.  M.,  Classic  Myths  in  Eng.  Lit.     2d  ed.     Boston,  Ginn.     1900. 
Gilbert,  G,  The  Const.  Antiq.  of  Sparta  and  Athens.   Lond.,  Sonnenschein. 
Grant,  A.  J.,  Greece  in  the  Age  of  Pericles.     London,  Murray.      1893. 
Greenidge,  A.  H.  J.,  Handbook  of  Greek  Constitutional  History.     London, 

Macmillan.     1896. 
Grote,  G,  History  of  Greece.     N.Y.,  Harper.     1856,  1857.     12  v. 
Grundy,  G.  B.,  The  Great  Persian  War.     N.Y.,  Scribner.     1901. 
Guhl,  E.,  and   Koner,  W.,   The  Life  of  the    Greeks  and  Romans.     N.Y., 

Appleton.     1896. 
Gulick,  C.  B.,  The  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.     N.Y.,  Appleton.     1902. 
Hall,  H.  R.  H.,  The  Oldest  Civilization  of  Greece,     London,  Nutt.    1901. 


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Harrison,  J.  A.,  Story  of  Greece.     N.Y.,  Putnam.     1897. 

Harrison,  J.  E.,  Introductory  Studies  in  Greek  Art.     London,  Unwm.     1885. 

Harrison,   J.  E.,   and  Verrall,   M.   de   G.,   Mythology   and  Monuments  of 

Ancient  Athens.     London,  Macmillan.     1890. 
Hogarth,  D.  G.,  Philip  and  Alexander  of  Macedon.     N.Y.,  Scnbner.    1897. 
Holm,  A.,  History  of  Greece.     London,  Macmillan.     1895.     4  v. 
Jebb,  Sir  R.  C,  Attic  Orators.     London,  Macmillan.     1876.     2  v. 

Greek  Literature.     London,  Macmillan.     1881.     (Primer.) 

Growth  and  Influence  of  Classical  Greek  Poetry.     Boston,  Houghton. 

Homer :   an    Introduction    to  the   Iliad  and  the  Odyssey.      Glasgow, 

Maclehose.     1887. 
Jevons,  F.  B.,  A  History  of  Greek  Literature.     N.Y.,  Scnbner.     i8b6. 
Lang,  A.,  Homer  and  the  Epic.      London,  Longmans.      1893. 
Leaf,  W.,  Companion  to  the  Iliad.      London,  Macmillan.     1892. 
Lewes,  G.,  The  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy.     N.Y.,  Appleton.     1890. 
Lloyd,  W.  W.,  The  Age  of  Pericles.     London,  Macmillan.     1875.     2  v. 
Macaulay,  T.  B.,  Essay  on  the  Athenian  Orators. 
Mach,  E.  von,  Greek  Sculpture.     Boston,  Ginn.      1903. 
Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  Greek  Life  and  Thought.     London,  Macmillan.      1887. 

The  Greek  World  under  Roman  Sway.     London,  Macmillan.      1890. 

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Marshall,  A  Short  History  of  Greek  Philosophy.     N.Y.,  Macmillan.     1 891. 
Mayor,  J.  B.,  Sketch  of  Ancient  Philosophy.    Camb.  [Eng.]  Univ.  Press.   18S5. 
Mitchell,  L.  M.,  History  of  Ancient  Sculpture.     N.Y.,  Dodd.     1894.     2  v. 
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Schuchhardt,  C,  Schliemann's  Excavations.      London,  Macmillan.      1891. 
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354  GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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SOURCES 

Most  of  the  primary  works  to  which  we  have  made  reference  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Bohn  Library  and  Harper's  Classical  Library.  We  name  here  by  way  of 
special  recommendation  editions  of  a  few  of  the  most  important  translations, 
together  with  several  valuable  collections  of  translations  and  extracts. 

Aristotle,  The  Constitution  of  Athens.  Trans,  by  Poste.  London,  Macmillan. 
Kxxizxv,  Anabasis  of  Alexander.  Trans,  by  Chinnock.  London,  Bell.  1893. 
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Press.      1904.     The  same,  trans,  by  Johns.     Edinb.,  Clark.     1903. 
Demosthenes,  (9ra//<9«j-.    Trans,  by  Kennedy.    N.Y.,  Scribner.     1889.    5  V. 
Egyptian   Book   of   the   Bead,    The.     Trans,    by    Davis.     N.Y.,    Putnam. 

1894.    The  same,  trans,  by  Budge.    London,  Kegan  Paul.     1898.    3  v. 
Extracts  from  the  Sources.     Department  of  History  of  Indiana  University. 
Harper,  R.  F.,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literatiire.    N.Y.,  Appleton,  1901. 
Herodotus.     Trans,  by  Raw^linson.     N.Y.,  Scribner.     1875.     4  v. 
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Roman  Period.     N.Y.,  Macmillan.     1901. 
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Plato,  Dialogues.     Trans,  by  Jowett.     N.Y.,  Macmillan.     1892.     5  v. 

. The  Republic.     Trans,  by  Jowett.     Oxford,  Clarendon  Press.      1881. 

Plutarch,  Z/Wj-.  Trans,  by  Stewart  and  Long.  London,  Bell.  1 880-1 882.  4  V. 
Polybius,  ^/j/^r/^J-.  Trans,  by  Shuckburgh.  London,  Macmillan.  1889.  2  v. 
Records  of  the  Past.    Trans,  of  the  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  monuments.    Ed. 

by  Birch.     Lond.,  Bagster.     12  v.     New  Series.     Ed.  by  Sayce.    6  v. 
Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Ed.  by  Max  Muller.  Ox.,  Clarendon  Pr.   1879-1904. 
Thucydides.     Trans,  by  Jowett.     Oxford,  Clarendon  Press.     1900.     2  v. 
Xenophon,  Aftabasis  and  Hellenica.   Tr. by  Daykins.   Lond.,  Macmillan.   2  v. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Note.  —  In  the  case  of  words  whose  correct  pronunciation  has  not 
seemed  to  be  clearly  indicated  by  their  accentuation  and  syllabication, 
the  sounds  of  the  letters  have  been  denoted  thus :  a,  like  a  in  gray ;  a, 
like  d,  only  less  prolonged;  a,  like  a  in  have ;  a,  like  a  m.  far ;  a,  like  a 
in  all ;  e,  like  ee  in  meet ;  e,  like  e,  only  less  prolonged;  e,  like  e  in  end ; 
e,  like  e  in  there  ;  e,  like  e  in  err ;  I,  like  /  in  ptne  ;  i,  like  i  in  pin  ;  6,  like 
o  in  note  ;  6,  like  d,  only  less  prolonged ;  6,  like  o  in  not ;  6,  like  o  in  drb  ; 
oo,  like  ^(?  in  moon  ;  \x,  like  u  in  ?7j-^;  ii,  like  the  French  u  ;  €  and  ch,  like 
k  ;  9,  like  s  ;  g,  like  ^  in  get ;  g,  like/;  s,  like  0;  ch,  as  in  German  ach  ; 
G,  small  capital,  as  in  German  Hamburg ;  n,  like  ni  in  minion  ;  n  denotes 
the  nasal  sound  in  French,  being  similar  to  ng  in  song. 


Aahmes  (a'mes),  Theban  prince,  27. 
Abraham,  Hebrew  patriarch,  75. 
A-chae'a,  description  of,  108. 
A-ehae'an  League,  288,  289. 
A-ehse'ans  in  the  Heroic  Age,  113. 
A-ehii'les,  119. 

Ac'ra-gas.     See  Agrigenticm. 
Acropolis,    the,    at    Athens,     168 ; 

buildings  on,  216. 
iE'gae,  266  n.  i. 
-^-ge'an  Sea,  islands  in,  iii, 
^-gr'na,  island,  190;    fall  of,   208; 

sculptures  of  temple  at,  302  n.  7. 
yE-gis'thus,  121. 
^-gos-potVmi,  capture  of  Athenian 

fleet  at,  241. 
^-ne'as,  1 19. 

^-o'li-ans,    the,    114;    early  settle- 
ments in  Asia  Minor,  123. 
^s'chi-nes,  268. 

iEs'chy-lus,  tragic  poet,  317,  318. 
-^-to'li-an  League,  289. 
Agade  (ag-a-da'),  49  n.  2. 
Ag-a-mem'non,  116,  119. 
A-gath'o-cles,    tyrant    of    Syracuse, 

264. 
A-ges'i-la'us,  Spartan  king,  conducts 

campaign  against  Persians  in  Asia 

Minor,  248,  249. 
Ag'o-ra,    the,    in   the    Heroic  Age, 

124. 


Ag-ri-gen'tum,  founded,  1 59 ;  sacked 
_  by  Carthaginians,  259,  260. 

Ah'ri-man,  95. 

A-hu'ra  Maz'da.     See  Ormazd. 

A'ker-blad,  34  n.  15. 

Akhenaten.     See  Ametthotep  IV. 

Al-cas'us,  lyric  poet,  314. 

Al-9i-bra-des,  personal  traits,  231, 
232  ;  speech  in  favor  of  the  Sicil- 
ian Expedition,  233,  234;  charged 
with  mutilation  of  the  Hermae, 
235  n.  7 ;  his  recall  to  Athens, 
235  ;  his  flight  and  counsel  to  the 
Spartans,  235 ;  his  recall,  239 ; 
gains  victories  for  the  Athenians, 
240 ;  is  deposed  from  his  com- 
mand, 240;  his  death,  240  n.  10. 

Alexander  the  Great,  his  youth  and 
accession  to  the  throne,  273,  274; 
destroys  Thebes,  274  ;  crosses  the 
Hellespont,  274,  275  ;  at  the  tomb 
of  Achilles,  275 ;  at  the  battle  of 
Granicus,  275;  cuts  the  Gordian 
knot,  275  n.  I ;  at  the  battle  of 
Issus,  275;  at  the  siege  of  Tyre, 
275,  276;  in  Egypt,  276;  at 
Arbela,  277 ;  at  Babylon  and  Per- 
sepolis,  277,  278;  in  Bactria  and 
Sogdiana,  279 ;  in  India,  279 ;  his 
plans,  281  ;  his  speech  to  muti- 
nous soldiers  at  Opis,  281,  282; 


355 


356       INDEX  AND   PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


his  death,  282  ;  his  character,  283  ; 

results  of  his  conquests,  284,  285  ; 

partition  of  his  empire,  286,  287. 
Alexander,  tyrant  of  Pherae,  256. 
Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  founded,  276; 

in  India,  founded,  280. 
Alexandrian  Age,  Uterature  of,  324, 

325- 
Alexandrian  Library,  292. 
Alphabet,  the  Semitic,  origin  of,  12 

n.  9 ;  disseminated  by  the  Phoeni- 
cians, 87. 
Al-phe'us,  river,  no, 
A-ma'sis,  king  of  Egypt,  89. 
A-men-ho'tep  IV,  28  n.  11. 
Ammon,  oasis  of,  91. 
Amos,  Hebrew  prophet,  78. 
Am-phic'ty-o-ny,  the,  136,  137.     See 

Sacred  Wars. 
Am-phip'o-lis,   battle  at,   228 ;   cap- 
tured by  Philip  II,  267. 
Am'y-tis,  73  n.  2. 
A-na'cre-on     or    A-nac're-on,    lyric 

poet,  at  court  of  Polycrates,  165; 

his  poetry,  314,  315. 
An-ax-ag'o-ras,  prosecution  of,  211 

n.  3  ;  his  philosophy,  329. 
A-nax-i-man'der,  327  n.  2. 
An-ax-im^e-nes,  327  n.  2. 
Ancestor      worship,      among      the 

Chinese,  105. 
An-chrses,  119. 
Angro   Mainyus   (an'gro  min'yous). 

See  Ahriman. 
Anshan  (iin'shan),  in  Elam,  88. 
An-tar9i-das,     Peace    of,     250;    its 

execution  by  Sparta,  250,  251. 
An-tig'o-ne,  319. 
Antioch,  290. 
An-tro-ehus  III,  the  Great,  king  of 

Syria,  290,  291. 
An-tip'a-ter,  288. 
A-pel'les,  Greek  painter,  310. 
Aph'ro-drte,    goddess,   132;    statue 

of,  at  C nidus,  306. 
Apis,  sacred  Egyptian  bull,  36,  37. 
A-poc'ry-pha,  the,  80. 
A-pori6,  his  oracle  at  Delphi,  133, 

134;  the  founder  of  colonies,  134. 
A-raHu,  Babylonian  Hades,  57. 
A-ra'tus,    general    of    the    Achaean 
_  League,  289  n.  8. 
Ar-be'la,  battle  of,  277. 
Ar-ca'di-a,  geography  of,  108. 


Ar-ca'di-ans,  rustic  manners  of,  108 ; 

_  form  a  confederacy,  254  n.  4. 
Ar-ehi-da'mus,  king  of  Sparta,  221. 
Ar-ehir6-ehus,  314  n.  i. 
Ar-ehi-me'des,    the    mathematician, 

Architecture,  Babylonian,  51 ;  Egyp- 
tian, 41,  42;  Persian,  96,  97; 
Greek,  294-300. 

Archons  at  Athens,  169. 

A-re-op'a-gus,  council  of  the,  169, 
1 70 ;    stripped   of    its    authority, 

_  206  n.  7. 

A'res,  131. 

Ar-gi-nu'sae,  battle  of,  240  ;  condem- 
nation of  Athenian  generals  after, 

..  240,  241. 

Ar'go-lis,  description  of,  109. 

Ar'go-nauts,  the,  118. 

Ar'gos,  early  ascendancy  of,  141  ; 
lamed  by  the  Spartans,  150;  be- 
comes head  of  league  in  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War,  229;  hopes  of 
leadership  ruined  at  Mantinea,  230. 

Ar-is-tar'chus,  the  astronomer,  337. 

Ar-is-tl'des,  his  character,  190;  op- 
poses the  naval  policy  of  Themis- 
tocles,  190  ;  is  ostracized,  190  ;  is 
chosen  commander  of  the  Ionian 
fleet  in  place  of  Pausanias,  202  ; 
president  of  the  Delian  League, 
203. 

A-ris'tT-on,  stele  of,  302. 

A-ris-to-de'mus,  king  of  Messenia, 
149. 

A-ris-to-gi'ton,  the  Athenian  tyran- 
nicide, 174. 

Ar-is-toph'a-nes,  comic  poet,  320. 

Ar'is-tot-le,  life  and  works,  ^12^,  334. 

Ar-rhi-doe'us,  286  n.  i. 

Ar-ta-pher'nes,  Persian  general,  185. 

Artaxerxes    (ar-tax-erx'es)   II,    245, 

__  250;  III,  97. 

Ar'te-mis,  goddess,  131;  temple  of, 
at  Ephesus,  296,  297. 

Ar-te-mis'l-um,  naval  battle  of,  196 
n.  6. 

Ar'y-ans,  use  of  the  term,  16  n.  3  ; 
chief  peoples,  16,  17;  primitive 
culture  of,  17  n.  6  ;  Aryan  expan- 
sion, 17,  18;  invasion  of  India 
by,  98. 

Asia  Minor,  migrations  to,  of  Greeks, 
122,  123. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


357 


As-pa'si-a,  211  n.  3,  342. 
As-shur-ban'i-pal,  65,  66;  as  patron 

of  literature,  69. 

Assyria,  the  countiy,  46;  excava- 
tions and  discoveries  in,  66,  67. 

Assyrian  Empire,  rise  of,  51  ;  politi- 
cal history,  62-66;  civilization, 
66-71  ;  services  rendered  to  civili- 
zation, 70,  71. 

Astrology  among  the  Babylonians, 

56,  57- 

Astronomy,  among  the  Egyptians, 
43  ;  among  the  Babylonians,  60  ; 
among  the  Greeks,  -^^TfT- 

A-the'na,  goddess,  131  ;  statue  of, 
by  Phidias,  304. 

Athenian  constitution,  169,  170; 
the  Solonian  reforms,  172;  the 
Clisthenean  reforms,  175,  176. 

Athenian  Empire,  outgrowth  of  the 
Delian  League,  203-205  ;  strength 
and  weakness  of,  217-219. 

Athenians,  the,  their  part  in  the  burn- 
ing of  Sardis,  183  ;  form  a  navy  in 
iEginetan  War,  190,  191  n.  2  ;  Gal- 
ton's  remarks  on,  218  n.  10. 

Athens,  relation  of,  to  villages  and 
towns  of  Attica,  128;  history  of, 
up  to  the  Persian  Wars,  168-178; 
histoiy  of,  under  kings,  169  ;  mon- 
archy transformed  into  an  oli- 
garchy, 169;  classes  at,  170; 
abandoned  by  Athenians,  196 ; 
burned  by  the  Persians,  197  ;  re- 
building of,  after  the  Persian 
Wars,  200 ;  in  the  Periclean  Age, 
210-219;  conspiracy  of  the  Four 
Plundred  at,  239,  240 ;  her  fall 
(404  B.C.),  241,  242;  Thirty  Ty- 
rants at,  244,  245  ;  her  new  con- 
federacy, 252  n.  3, 

A'thos  or  Ath'os,  Mount,  destruc- 
tion of  Persian  fleet  at,  185  ; 
canal  at,  cut  by  Xerxes,  192. 

Attica,  central  point  of  Greek  his- 
tory, 108;  ethnic  elements  of  its 
population,  168;  consolidation  of 
the  villages  of,  169  ;  the  four  so- 
called  "Attic  tribes,"  175  n.  10; 
ten  new  Attic  tribes  formed  by 
Clisthenes,  175  n.  10, 

Babylon,  rise  of,  50 ;  destroyed  by 
Sennacherib,  65 ;  fall  of,  73,  74. 


Babylonia,  geology,  46,  47  ;  produc- 
tions, 47 ;  remains  of  its  cities, 
5 1 ;  excavations  and  discoveries 
in,  52  ;  becomes  part  of  Persian 
Empire,  90. 

Babylonian  Empire,  political  history, 
48-51  ;  civilization,  51-61. 

Babylonian  Genesis,  the,  58. 

Bactria,  conquest  of,  by  Alexander, 
279. 

Ba'tis,  276. 

Be-his-tun'  Rock,  92. 

Beluchistan  (bel-oo-chis-tan^),  280. 

Be'ma,  the  Athenian,  170  n.  3. 

Be-ro'sus,  324. 

Bes'sus,  Persian  general,  278. 

Boe-6'ti-a,  108. 

Boeotian  League,  dissolved  by 
Sparta,  250;  its  revival,  252. 

Book  of  the  Dead,  35. 

Bos'po-rus,  the,  155. 

Bot'ta,  M.,  67. 

Brah'ma,  99,  100. 

Brahmanism,  99,  100. 

Brahmans,  the,  99. 

Bras'i-das,  Spartan  general,  228. 

Bronze,  Age  of,  6  n.  4 ;  in  the 
iEgean  lands,  115  n.  i. 

Buddha  (bood'ha),  100. 

Buddhism,  100,  loi  ;  in  China, 
105. 

By-zan'ti-um,  founding  of,  156. 

Cad'mus,  116. 

Calendar,  the  Egyptian,  43,  44 ;  the 
Babylonian,  60. 

Cal-lic'ra-tes,  architect,  216. 

Cal-limVchus,  295. 

Cam-bu'ni-an  Mountains,  no. 

Cam-by 'ses,  91. 

Car'che-mish,  29. 

Car-ma'ni-a,  280. 

Carthage,  at  the  time  of  the  Per- 
sian Wars,  181. 

Cas-san'der,  287. 

Caste,  Hindu  system  of,  98,  99. 

Cathay  (kath-a').     See  China. 

Cayster  (ka-is'ter),  river,  89. 

^e-cro'pi-a,  nucleus  of  Athens,  116. 

Ce'crops,  1 16. 

^elts,  ancient  and  present  repre- 
sentatives, 19. 

Ce-phis'sus,  stream,  no. 

Chasr-o-ne'a,  battle  of,  270. 


358       INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Chal-9id'i-9e,  the  name,  155;  rela- 
tion to  Macedonia  of  colonies  in, 
266. 

Char9is,  colonies  of,  on  Macedo- 
nian shore,   155. 

Chaldaean  Empire,  the,  72-74. 

Chaldaeans,  early  home,  72  n.  i. 

Champollion  (sham-pori-on),  34 
n.  15. 

Cha'res,  Greek  sculptor,  307. 

Che  Hwang-te  (she  whong-te),  Chi- 
nese ruler,  102. 

Che'ops,  24,  25. 

China,  early  history,  102-106. 

Chinese,  writing,  103  ;  literature,  104; 
competitive  examinations,  105. 

Chinese  Wall,  the,  102. 

Chl'os,  island,  iii. 

Cimon,  son  of  Miltiades,  pays  his 
father's  fine,  189;  commander  of 
the  Athenian  fleet,  205;  at  the 
Eurymedon,  205  n.  4 ;  his  recall, 
206  n.  6;  his  ostracism,  206; 
rival  of  Pericles,  206. 

Cirr'ha,  destroyed  by  Amphictyons, 

137- 

City-state,  the  Greek,  127-129. 

Clan.     See  Gens. 

Cle-ar'chus,  a  general  of  the  Ten 
Thousand,  246. 

Cle'on,  his  advice  in  regard  to  the 
Mytileneans,  226;  his  death,  228. 

Cle'ru-chies,  nature  of,  153  n.  4; 
settlement  formed  by  Athenians 
in  Lesbos,  226  n.  4. 

Clis'the-nes,  constitution  of,  175. 

Cirtus,  murdered  by  Alexander,  279. 

Clyt-em-nes'tra,  wife  of  Agamem- 
non, 121. 

Cnossus  (nos'us),  Cretan  city,  118 
n.  3. 

Co'drus,  king  of  Athens,  169. 

Colonies,  Greek :  causes  of  Greek 
colonization,  152,  153;  relation 
of,  to  the  mother  city,  153,  154; 
cleruchies,  153  n.  4;  in  Chalcid- 
ice,  155;  on  the  Hellespont,  the 
Propontis,  and  the  Bosporus,  155, 
156;  in  the  Euxine  region,  156; 
on  the  Ionian  Islands,  157;  in 
Southern  Italy,  158;  in  Sicily 
and  Southern  Gaul,  159  ;  in  North 
Africa  and  Egypt,  160;  place  of, 
in  Grecian  history,  160. 


Colossus  of  Rhodes,  307. 

Competitive  examinations,  Chinese, 
105. 

Confucianism,  105. 

Confucius,  Chinese  sage,  103,  104. 

Cor-9y'ra,  city,  founded,  157  ;  quarrel 
with  Corinth,  220. 

Corcyra,  island,  iii. 

Corinth,  forms  early  alliance  wdth 
Sparta,  150;  Greek  council  at,  in 
481  B.C.,  192,  193;  quarrel  with 
Corcyra,  220;  congress  convened 
at,  by  Philip  of  Macedon,  271. 

Corinth,  isthmus  of,  107. 

Corinthia,  description  of,  108. 

Corinthian  War,  249. 

Co-rcE'bus,  victor  at  Olympia,  134. 

Cor-o-ne'a,  battle  of  (394  B.C.), 
209. 

Crete,  in  Greek  legend,  in. 

Cris'sa,  destroyed  by  Amphictyons, 

137- 

Crit'i-as,  Athenian  oligarch,  245. 

Croe'sus,  king  of  Lydia,  89, 90  n.  i. 

Cro'ton  founded,  158. 

■Cu'mae,  oracle  at,  158,  159. 

■€u-nax'a,  battle  of,  between  Cyrus 
and  Artaxerxes,  246. 

Cuneiform  wTiring,  53,  54;  its  de- 
cipherment, 55  n.  7. 

Cy-ax'a-res,  king  of  the  Medes,  66, 
88. 

(^yc'la-des,  the,  iir. 

Cyclopes  (sl-kl5'pez),  the,  132  n.  8. 

Qy'lon,  rebellion  of,  170  n.  4. 

gyn'ics,  the,  334. 

Qyr-e-na'i-ca,  160. 

(^y-re'ne,  founded,  160;  brought 
under  Persian  rule,  180. 

Qy-ro-pce-dl'a,  the,  of  Xenophon, 
322. 

(^yrus  the  Younger,  245,  246. 

Cyrus  the  Great,  88-91. 

Dam'o-cles,  story  of,  262  n.  2. 

Darius  I,  reign,  92,  93 ;  reorganizes 
the  empire,  94;  conquests  in 
Europe,  181;  first  expedition 
against  Greece,  185  ;  second,  185- 
188;  III,  275,  277,  278. 

Da'tis,  Persian  general,  185. 

David,  king,  76. 

Decarchies,  established  by  Sparta, 
244. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY      359 


De9-e-le'a,  its  occupation  urged  on 
the  Spartans  by  Alcibiades,  235; 
effects  upon  Athens  of  its  occu- 
pation by  the  Spartans,  238. 

Decelean  War,  the,  237,  242. 

DeUan  League.  See  Delos,  Con- 
federacy of. 

De'los,  Confederacy  of,  its  forma- 
tion, 202,  203 ;  transformed  into 
an  empire  by  the  Athenians,  203- 
205. 

De'los,  island,  iii. 

Delphian  oracle,  the,  132-134;  in- 
fluence on  Hellenic  unity,  134; 
its  services  in  Greek  colonization, 
134  n.  II  ;  consulted  by  Croesus, 
133  n.  10;  its  attitude  in  the 
Persian  Wars,  193;  message  to 
the  Athenians  at  the  time  of  the 
Persian  Wars,  196;  oracle  given 
Spartans  at  beginning  of  Pel6- 
ponnesian  War,  221. 

Deme  (dem),  the  Attic,  175  n.  10. 

De-me'ter,  cult  of,  132  n.  7. 

De-moc'ri-tus,  329. 

De-mos'the-nes,  Athenian  admiral, 
seizes  Pylos,  227;  carries  rein- 
forcements to  Nicias,  in  Sicily, 
237  n.  8;  his  execution,  237. 

Demosthenes,  the  orator,  his  Olyn- 
thiacs,  269 ;  his  Philippics,  268 ; 
his  oration  on  the  crown,  323. 

Di-cas'te-ries,  Athenian,  description 
of,  214,  215;  method  of  fixing 
penalty,  248  n.  i. 

Dl-6-d6'rus  Sic'u-lus,  325. 

Dl-og'e-nes,  the  Cynic,  334. 

Di'on,  counselor  of  Dionysius  II, 
262,  263. 

Dl-o-nys'i-us  I,  tyrant  of  Syracuse, 
260-262;  II,  the  Younger,  260- 
263. 

Dl-o-ny'sus,  132  n.  8  ;  theater  of,  at 
Athens,  300. 

Dis-cob'o-ltis,  the,  302. 

Do-do'na,  oracle  at,  133  n.  9. 

Domestication  of  animals,  7,  8  n.  6; 
of  plants,  8,  9  n.  7. 

Dorian    invasion,    the,    legend    of, 

122, 
Dorians,  characteristics  of,  113, 114  ; 
conquer  the   Peloponnesus,  122; 
early  migrations,  141  n.  I. 
Do-ris'cus,  plain  of,  194. 


Dowery  of  the  dead,  5  ;   in  ancient 

Egypt,  39'  40. 
Draco,  his  code,  170,  171. 
Drama,   the  Attic,  origin    of,  316; 

leading  ideas  of  Greek  tragedy, 

317- 
Dravidians,  the,  98  n.  i. 

Ec-bat'a-na,  278. 

Ec-cle'si-a,   at    Athens,    in    earliest 

times,   170;   Thetes  admitted  to, 

by  Solon,  172;  place  of  meeting, 

170  n.  3. 
Education,    Chinese,    105  ;    Greek, 

340-342;  at  Sparta,  147,  148. 
E-ges'ta   (or  .^gesta),  asks    aid  of 

Athens,  232  ;  of  the  Cartha  Tinians, 

259- 

Egypt,  geology,  20 ;  delta  of  the 
Nile,  20;  climate  und  products, 
21,  22;  Prehistoric  Age  in,  22; 
political  history,  23-32  ;  the  thirty- 
one  dynasties,  23;  Old,  Middle, 
and  New  empires,  23;  civiliza- 
tion, 32-44  ;  her  contribution  to 
civiHzation,  44 ;  under  the  Ptole- 
mies, 291,  292. 

Elam,  50. 

El-eu-sin'i-an  Mysteries,  the,  132 
n.  7. 

Elgin  (ergin),  Lord,  304  n.  9. 

Elijah,  the  prophet,  78. 

E'Us,  description  of,  109. 

Elisha,  the  prophet,  78. 

Elysian  (e-lizh'an)  Fields,  the,  138. 

Em-ped'o-cles,  329. 

E-pam-i-non'das,  at  Leuctra,  252, 
253;  ravages  Laconia,  254;  in 
Arcadia,  254;  his  second  and 
third  expeditions  into  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, 256  n.  5;  fourth  expe- 
dition, 256;  his  death,  257. 

Eph'e-sus,  early  Ionian  colony, 
123. 

Eph-i-al'tes,  Greek  traitor.  195. 

Ephialtes, leader  of  attack  upon  the 
Areopagus,  206;  his  assassina- 
tion, 207  n.  8. 

Eph'ors,  the,  at  Sparta,  144,  145. 

Ep-i-cu'rus,  335. 

E-pT'rus,  district  of,  108. 

Er-a-tos'the-nes,  geographer,  337. 

E'rech,  city,  55. 

Er-ech-the'um,  the,  215  n.  8. 


360      INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


E-re'tri-a,  aids  the  Ionian  rebels, 
183  n.  I ;  destroyed  by  the  Per- 
sians, 186. 

Eridu  (a'ri-doo),  city,  49  n.  2. 

Erinnyes  (e-rin'i-ez),  the,  132  n.  8. 

E'ros,  132  n.  8. 

E-sar-had'don  I,  65  n.  3. 

Eu-boe'a,  island,    1 1 1 . 

Eu'clid,  the  mathematician,  237- 

Eumenides  (u-men'i-dez),  the,  132 
n.  8. 

Eu'pa-trids,  the,  at  Athens,  170. 

Euphrates,  valley  of  the,  46. 

Eu-rip'i-des,  tragic  poet,  319,  320. 

Eu-ro'tas,  valley  of  the,  109. 

Eu-iy-bra-des,  Spartan  king,  at 
Salamis,   197  n.  7. 

Eu-rym'e-don,  battle  of  the,  205 
n.  4. 

Euxine  Sea  (uk'sin),  Greek  colonies 
on,  156;  trade  of,  156. 

Fates,  the,  132  n.  8. 

Fayum  (fi-oom'),  district  of  the,  26. 

Fire,  origin  of  its  use,  6,  7  ;  meth- 
ods of  fire-making,  7. 

Four  Hundred,  the,  conspiracy  of, 
at  Athens,  239,  240. 

Friendship  among  the  Greeks,  342, 

343- 
Future  life,  doctrine  of,  among  the 
Egyptians,  37  ;  among  the  Baby- 
lonians, 57  ;  among  the  Hebrews, 
81 ;  among  the  Greeks,  138, 

Ga'des,  86. 

Galton,  quoted,  218  n.  10. 

Gauls,  their  invasion  of  Greece,  288. 

Gau'ta-ma.     See  Buddha. 

Gaza,  reduced  by  Alexander,  276. 

Ge-dro'si-a,  280. 

Ge'lo,  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  193. 

Gens  (clan),  the,  among  the  Greeks, 

128,  notes  3  and  4,  175  n.  10. 
Geometry,    science    of,   among  the 

Egyptians,  44. 
Gideon,  Hebrew  judge,  75. 
Girga-mesh,  Epic  of,  59. 
Go-ma'tes.     See  Snierdis. 
Gordian  knot,  275  n.  i. 
Gor'di-um,  275  n.  i. 
Gor'gi-as,  330  n.  4. 
Gra-ni'cus,  battle  of,  275. 
Great  Wall,  the  Chinese,  102  n.  5. 


Grecian  games,  influence  of,  135. 

Greece,  home  land  of  the  Hellenes, 
107  ;  divisions  of,  107-1 10  ;  moun- 
tains of,  no;  rivers  and  lakes  of, 
no;  islands  round,  in;  climate 
and  productions  of,  ni,  112;  in- 
fluence of  land  upon  the  people, 
112,  113;  Oriental  settlers  in,  116. 

Greeks,  their  legends,  115-123;  in-  . 
heritance  of,  127-140;  religious 
ideas  and  institutions,  129-138; 
their  language,  138;  their  mythol- 
ogy, 139;  their  early  literature, 
139;  their  early  art,  139,  140. 
See  Hellenes. 

Grotefend  (gro'te-fend),  55  n.  7. 

Gy-lip'pus,  Spartan  general,  235. 

Gymnastic  art,  influence  upon  sculp- 
ture, 301. 

Hades  (ha'dez),  130. 

Hal-i-car-nas'sus,  mausoleum  at, 
300. 

Hriys,  the,  88. 

Hamites,  16,  19. 

Hammurabi  (ham-moo-ra'be),  Baby- 
lonian king,  50 ;  his  code,  59,  60. 

Hanging  gardens  of  Babylon,  73  n.  2. 

Har-mo'di-us,  the  Athenian  tyranni- 
cide, 1 74 ;  statue  of,  carried  off 
by  Xerxes,  sent  back  by  Alex- 
ander, 278. 

Harmosts,  Spartan,  244. 

He'be,  132  n.  8. 

Hebrews,  the,  in  Egypt,  26,  30  n.13  ; 
the  "  Exodus,"  30 ;  Patriarchal 
Age,  75;  Age  of  the  Judges,  75; 
founding  of  the  monarchy,  75, 
76;  reign  of  David,  76;  reign  of 
Solomon,  76;  division  of  the 
monarchy,  77,  78;  kingdom  of 
Israel,  78  ;  kingdom  of  Judah,  78, 
79 ;  literature,  79,  80 ;  religion 
and  morality,  80,  8 1  ;  ideas  of  the 
future  life,  81. 

Hector,  son  of  Priam,  119. 

Hel'en,  wife  of  Menelaus,  nQ. 

He-li-ae'a,  the,  214. 

Heri-con,  Mount,  no. 

Hel'las,  term  defined,  107. 

Hel-le'nes,  or  Hel'lenes,  Greece 
proper  ^their  home  land,  107;  in- 
fluence of  land  upon,  112;  divi- 
sions of,  113,  114.    See  Greeks. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY      361 


Hellenism,  term  defined,  284  n.  10. 

HeHes-pont,  the,  bridged  by  Xerxes, 
192. 

He'lots,  the,  at  Sparta,  143;  "mas- 
sacre of,  by  Spartans,  143  n.  5; 
revolt  of,  205,  206. 

He-phaes'ti-on,  282  n.  8. 

He-ph^es'tus,  131. 

He'ra,  131. 

Her'a-cles,  twelve  labors  of,  177. 

Her-a-cli'dse,  return  of  the,  122. 

Her-a-cli'tus,  327  n.  2. 

Her'mes,  131. 

Her'mus,  river,  89. 

He-rod'o-tus,  321. 

He'si-od,  314. 

Hes'ti-a,  132. 

He-ta^'rae,  the,  342. 

Hez-e-ki'ah,    king    of     Judah,    64, 

65- 

Hfe-ro  II,  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  264. 

Hieroglyphics,  Egyptian,  33,  34; 
decipherment  of,  34  n.  1 5. 

Him'e-ra,  battle  of,  199  n.  11. 

Himera,  Sicilian  city,  destroyed  by 
Carthaginians,  259. 

Hinduism,  loi. 

Hip-par'chus,  astronomer,  337. 

Hipparchus,  Athenian  tyrant,  174. 

Hip'pi-as,  174;  driven  from  Athens, 
175;  goes  to  Susa,  177;  guides 
the  Persians  to  Marathon,  185. 

Hip'po,  86. 

Hip-poc'ra-tes,  physician,  338. 

Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  76. 

His-sar'lik,  excavations  at,  120  n.  4. 

Historic  Age,  divisions  of,  14  n.  i. 

Hittites,  the,  28,  29,  30. 

Homer,  313. 

Homeric  poems,  date  and  author- 
ship of,  123  n.  7  ;  their  picture  of 
society  in  prehistoric  Greece,  123- 
125. 

Ho'rus,  Egyptian  deity,  36. 

Hosea,  Hebrew  prophet,  7^. 

Hyk's5s,  the,  26,  27. 

Hy-met'tus,  Mount,  no. 

Hys-tas'pes,  55  n.  7. 


Ic-tl'nus,  architect,  216. 
Ideograms  defined,  10. 
Iliad,    subject    of    the,     119. 

Homeric  poems. 
iri-os.     See  Troy. 


See 


I-lis'sus,  stream,  no. 

India,  early  histoiy,  98-101 ;  con- 
quests in,  by  Darius,  92  ;  by  Alex- 
ander, 279. 

Ionia,  cities  of,  subjected  by  Lydian 
kings,  89  ;  reduced  by  Cyrus,  179 ; 
revolt  against  Persians,  183;  sup- 
pression of  the  revolt,  184;  at 
the  end  of  the  Ionian  revolt,  185. 

Ionian  Islands,  the,  in. 

lonians,  characteristics  of,  n3  ;  set- 
tlements of,  in  Asia  Minor,  123. 
See  Ionia. 

Ip'sus,  battle  of  (301  B.C.),  286  n.  3. 

Iran  (e-ran'),  plateau  of,  88. 

Tris,  132  n.  8. 

Iron  Age,  5,  6  n.  4. 

I-sae'us,  Greek  orator,  323  n.  6. 

Is'lam.     See  Alo/iammedanism. 

i-'soc'ra-tes,  Greek  orator,  323  n.  6. 

Israel,  capdvity  of,  63  ;  kingdom  of, 
78. 

Ls'sus,  battle  of,  275. 

Isthmian  games,  the,  135. 

Ith'a-ca,  birthplace  of  Odysseus,  n  i. 

l-th5'me.  Mount,  149. 

Japanese,    the,    racial    relationship, 

Jason,  legendary  prince  of  Thessaly, 

n8. 
Jealousy  of  the  gods,  doctrine   of, 

Jeph'thah,  Hebrew  hero,  75. 

Jerusalem,  taken  by  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, 72;  destroyed  by  the  Ro- 
mans, 79. 

Josephus,  historian,  80. 

Judah,  kingdom  of,  78,  79. 

Judgment  of  the  Dead,  the,  in  Egyp- 
tian theology,  40,  41. 

Kar'nak,  Temple  of,  28;  Hall  of 
Columns  at,  29. 

Khor-sa-bad',  67. 

Khufu.     See  Cheops. 

Kitchen  middens,  2. 

Kouyunjik  (koo-yobn-jek'),  native 
name  of  largest  mound  at  Nine- 
veh, 68 ;  excavated  by  Layard,  68. 

Ea9'e-dns'mon,    descriptive    epithet 

"■  hollow,"  109. 
Lacedaemonians.     See  Spartans. 


362      INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


La-co'ni-a,  geography  of,  109 ;  classes 
in,  143;  ravaged  by  Epaminondas, 

254- 

La'gash,  city,  52  n.  5. 

Lam'a-ehus,  Athenian  general,  232. 

La'mi-an  War,  288. 

Language,  formation  of,  9, 10. 

La-oc'o-on,  the,  307,  308. 

Larsam,  city,  49  n.  2. 

Lau'ri-um,  silver  mines  at,  191  n.  4; 
revenue  from,  used  by  the  Athe- 
nians for  building  a  navy,  191 
n.  4. 

Lebanon,  Mount,  83. 

Lem'nos,  island,  in. 

Lenormant  (leh-nor-moii'),  quoted, 
87. 

Le-on'i-das,  king  of  Sparta,  at  Ther- 
mopylae, 195. 

Le-o-tych'i-des,  Spartan  king,  198 
n.  10. 

Les^bos,  island,  1 1 1 ;  settled  by  JEo- 
lians,  123. 

Leuc'tra,  battle  of,  252-254. 

Literature,  Assyrian, 69 ;  Babylonian, 
55,  56,  58,  59;  Chinese,  104;  Egyp- 
tian, 34,  35;  Greek,  314-325;  He- 
brew, 79,  80. 

Long  Walls,  at  Athens,  207  n.  9, 
208  n.  10;  their  demolition  by 
the  Peloponnesians,  242  ;  restora- 
tion of,  249. 

Ly-ce'um,  the,  adorned  by  Pisistra- 
tus,   174. 

Ly-cur'gus,  legend  of,  144. 

Lydia,  the  land,  89 ;  conquered  by 
Cyrus  the  Great,  89;  import  of 
this  for  Greece,  179. 

Ly-san'der,  Spartan  general,  cap- 
tures Athenian  fleet  at  ^^gos- 
potami,  241 ;  sets  up  oligarchic 
rule  at  Athens,  244. 

Lys'i-as,  Athenian  orator,  at  Olym- 
pia,  262  ;  mentioned,  323  n.  6. 

Ly-sim'a-chus,  287. 
Ly-sip'pus,  sculptor,  307. 

Mac'ca-bees,  the,  79. 

Macedonia,  submits  to  Darius,  181  ; 
under  Philip  II,  266-272;  its 
rulers,  266;  its  population,  266; 
after  Alexander's  death,  287. 

Magna  Graecia,  the  name,  1 58  ;  colo- 
nies   of,     158,    159;     cities    of, 


conquered  by  Dionysius  I  of  Syra- 
cuse, 260. 

Mag-ne'si-a,  battle  of,  291. 

Man'e-tho,  23,  324. 

Man-ti-ne'a,  city,  251 ;  battle  of  (418 
B.C.),  230;  battle  of  (362  B.C.), 
256,  257. 

Mar'a-thon,  battle  of,  186-188  ;  re- 
sults of,  188,  189. 

Mar-do'ni-us,  Persian  general,  expe- 
dition against  Eretria  and  Athens, 
185;  left  behind  by  Xerxes  in 
Greece,  198;  attempts  to  bribe 
the  Athenians,  198;  his  death, 
198. 

Mar'duk,  Babylonian  deity,  58. 

Mas-sa'li-a,  founded,  1 59. 

Mausoleum,  at  Halicamassus,  300. 

Mau-so'lus,  king  of  Caria,  300. 

Medes,  the,  88. 

Medicine,  science  of,  among  the 
Egyptians,  44  ;  among  the  Greeks, 
338,  339. 

Meg-a-lop'o-lis,  founding  of,  254  n.  4. 

Me'los,  taken  possession  of,  by  the 
Athenians,  230,  231. 

Memnon,  the  Vocal,  28  n.  10. 

Memphis,  in  Egypt,  24. 

Me-nan'der,  320  n.  4. 

Mencius  (men'shi-us),  Chinese  sage, 
104. 

Men-e-la'us,  116. 

Me-neph'tha,  30. 

Me'nes,  23,  24. 

Mesopotamia,  the  name,  46  n.  i. 

Mes-sa'na,  Greek  colony,  149. 

Mes-se'ne,  founding  of,  by  Epami- 
nondas, 255. 

Mes-se'ni-a,  its  physical  character- 
istics, 109. 

Mes-se'ni-an  wars,  First  and  Second, 
148-150;  Third,  205,  206. 

Messenians,  liberation  of,  by  Epami- 
nondas, 255. 

Metals,  Age  of,  5,  6. 

MMe'tus,  early  Ionian  colony,  123; 
colonies  of,  in  Euxine  region,  156; 
fall  of,  184. 

Mil-ti'a-des,  in  command  at  Mara- 
thon, 187  ;  his  disgrace  and  death, 
189. 

Mi'nos,  king  of  Crete,  founder  of 
maritime  empire,  118. 

Min'o-taur,  the,  117. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY      363 


Mce'ris,  Lake,  26. 

Moses,  Hebrew  lawgiver,  75. 

Myc'a-le,  battle  of,  19S,  199. 

My-ce'nae,  seat  of  prehistoric  race, 
109,  115  n.  I,  121  n.  5,  122  n.  6; 
in  Dorian  times,  141  n.  2. 

Mycenaean  Age,  1 1 5  n.  i ;  architec- 
ture of,  296  n.  I  ;  relation  of  My- 
ceneean  art  to  that  of  prehistoric 
times  in  Greece,  300  n.  6. 

My'ron,  sculptor,  302. 

Myt-i-le'ne,  revolt  of,  226;  fate  of 
the  Mytilenasan  prisoners,  226. 

Nab-o-nrdus,  king  of  Babylon,  73. 

Nab-o-po-las'sar,  73. 

Na-ram'-Sin,  Babylonian  king,  49 
n.  4. 

Nau'cra-tis,  founded,  160. 

Nax'os,  secedes  from  the  Delian 
League,  204. 

Ne-ar'ehus,  Alexander's  admiral, 
2S0,  281. 

Neb-ii-chad-nez'zar  II,  72,  73. 

Ne'chS  II,  31,  32. 

Negative  confession,  the,  in  Egyp- 
tian theology,  40,  41. 

Ne'me-a,  135. 

Nemean  games,  the,  135. 

Nem'e-sis,  132  n.  8,  317. 

Nemesis,  doctrine  of,  in  Greek 
tragedy,  317. 

Neolithic  Age,  5, 

Neoplatonism,  its  conflict  w'ith 
Christianity,  336. 

Nes'tor,  119. 

Ni9'i-as,  Athenian  general,  given 
command  in  the  Sicilian  expedi- 
tion, 232;  speech  against  the  ex- 
pedition, 233  ;  reply  to  Alcibiades, 
234  ;  in  Sicily,  236;  his  execution, 

237. 

Nicjiias,  Peace  of,  228,  229. 

Nile,  the,  delta  of,  20;  First  Cata- 
ract, 20  n.  I ;  deposits  of,  20  n.  2  ; 
inundation,  21. 

Nin'e-veh,  decoration  of,  by  Sen- 
nacherib, 64  ;  its  fall,  66 ;  palace 
mound  at,  68 ;  Royal  Library 
found  at,  68,  69. 

Nippur  (nip-poo?),  city,  49  n.  2 ; 
excavations  at,  53;  its  temple 
library,  53. 

Nir-van'a,  100  n.  3. 


Obelisks,  Egyptian,  42. 

O-de'on,  the,  at  Athens,  216. 

O-dys'seus,  119,  120. 

Od'ys-sey,  subject  of  the,  120.  See 
Homeric  poems. 

CEd'i-pus  Colofteus,  319. 

O-lym'pi-a,  location  of,  109,  no; 
national  Greek  games  at,  134. 

Olympia,  temple  of  Zeus  Olympius 
at,  298 ;  excavation  of  the  site, 
299. 

O-lym'pi-ad,  First,  134;  mode  of 
designating  dates  by,   134  n.   13. 

Olympian  Council,  the,  131. 

Olympian  games,  the,  134,  135;  re- 
vival of,  136  n.  14  ;  influence  upon 
Greek  sculpture,  136. 

O-lym'pus,  Mount,  no. 

Olynthian  Confederacy,  dissolved 
by  Sparta,  251  ;  towns  of,  de- 
stroyed by  Philip  of  Macedon, 
269. 

O'pis,  281. 

Oracles  among  the  Greeks.  See 
Delphiati  oracle. 

Oratory,  Greek,  322,  323. 

Orders  of  Greek  architecture,  295, 
296. 

Or'mazd,  95. 

O-srris,  Egyptian  deity,  36. 

Os'sa,  Mount,  no. 

Ostracism,  175,  176. 

Pac-to'lus,  river,  89. 

Pae-o'ni-us,  Nike  of,  305. 

Painting,  Greek,  308-310;  use  of 
color  by  the  Greeks  in  connection 
with  sculpture  and  architecture, 
309  n.  19. 

Paleohthic  Age,  3-5. 

Pan-ath-e-nas'a,  the  Great,  estab- 
lished by  Pisistratus,  173;  the 
Less,  173  n.  9. 

Papyrus  paper,  35  n.  16. 

Par'a-lus,  Athenian  state  ship,  241. 

Par-nas'sus,  Mount,  1 10. 

Pa'ros,  marbles  of,  112. 

Parrhasius  (par-ra'shi-us),  Greek 
painter,  310. 

Parthenon,  the,  2r6;  treasure  in, 
297  n.  2  ;  description  of,  297,  298 ; 
sculptures  of,  303  n.  9. 

Parthia,  290  n.  9. 

Pa-sar'ga-dae,  90. 


364      INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Pa-tro'clus,  119. 

Pau-sa'ni-as,  at  Plataea,  198  n.  9  ;  his 
treason  and  death,  201,  202  n.  2. 

Pausanias,  traveler  and  writer,  338. 

Pe'h-on,  Mount,  no. 

Pel'la,  266  n.  i. 

Pe-lop'i-das,  Ubgrates  Thebes,  252  ; 
in  Thessaly,  256;  goes  to  Susa  as 
an  envoy,  256. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'sian  War,  the,  causes 
of,  220;  events  of,  221-242;  re- 
sults of,  242,  243.  See  Table  of 
Contents. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'sus,  the  name,  116; 
conquered  by  the  Dorians,  122. 

Pe'lops,  fabled  colonizer  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, 1 16. 

Pe-neFo-pe,  122,  124. 

Pe-ne'us,  river,  1 10. 

Pen-teri-cus,  Mount,  no. 

Per-dic'cas,  king  of  Macedonia,  267. 

Perdiccas,  regent,  286  n.  i. 

Per'ga-mum  (or  Pergamus),  center 
of  Hellenistic  culture,  290  n.  9. 

Per-i-an'der,  tyrant  of  Corinth,  164, 
165. 

Per'i-cles,  opposes  Cimon,  206 ; 
comes  to  the  head  of  affairs  in 
Athens,  207 ;  fosters  the  naval 
power  of  Athens,  208  ;  negotiates 
the  Thirty  Years'  Truce  w^th 
Sparta,  209 ;  his  position  at 
Athens,  210,  211;  attacks  upon, 
211  n.  3;  his  law  limiting  citizen- 
ship, 212;  takes  citizens  into  pay 
of  the  state,  213;  adorns  Athens 
with  public  buildings,  215-217; 
effects  of  his  system  of  public 
doles,  219;  funeral  oration  of, 
222-224;  his  death,  225. 

Pericles,  the  Age  of,  210-219. 

Per-i-oe'9i,  the,  in  Laconia,  143. 

Per-seph'o-ne,  cult  of,  132  n.  7. 

Per-sep'o-lis,  structures  at,  96,  97  ; 
destroyed  by  Alexander,  278. 

Persian  Empire,  political  history  of, 
88-94 ;  nature  of  government,  94  ; 
cramps  the  Greek  world,  1 78-181  ; 
wars  with  Greece,  183-199;  con- 
quered by  Alexander  the  Great, 
274-280. 

Persians,  relation  to  the  Medes,  88; 
literature  and  religion,  95. 

Phado,  332. 


Phalanx,  Macedonian,  Theban  origin 
of,  253,  267  n.  2. 

Pha'ros,  the,  at  Alexandria,  292. 

Phei'don,  king  of  Argos,  141,  142. 

Phid'i-as,  his  masterpieces,  303-305. 

Phi-dip'pi-des,  Greek  runner,  186. 

Philae,  island,  20  n.  i. 

Philip  II,  king  of  Macedon,  his 
youth,  256,  267  ;  his  accession  to 
the  throne,  267  ;  his  conquests  in 
Chalcidice  and  Thrace,  267,  268 ; 
in  the  Second  Sacred  War,  269, 
270 ;  his  victory  at  Chaeronea, 
270  ;  his  plan  to  invade  Asia,  271; 
his  death,  271;  results  of  his 
reign,  271,  272. 

Phi-lip'pl,  founded,  268. 

Phi'lo,  80. 

Phil-o-poe'men,  289  n.  8. 

Phocians,  in  Second  Sacred  War, 
269,  270. 

Pho'ci-on,  Athenian  statesman,  268. 

Pho'cis,  district  of  Greece,  108. 

Phoe'bus.     See  Apollo. 

Phoe-nic'i-a,  the  land,  S3  ;  products 
of,  83. 

Phoenicians,  their  early  migrations, 
83 ;  their  commerce,  84,  85  ;  col- 
onies, 85,  86;  routes  of  trade,  85 
n.  2  ;  arts  disseminated  by,  86,  87. 

Phonograms,  defined,  11. 

Phra'try,  the,  128,  175  n.  10. 

Pindar,  274,  315. 

Piracy  in  the  Heroic  Age,  125. 

Pi-ras'us,  the,  fortified  by  Themis- 
tocles,  200,  201  ;  dismantled  by 
the  Peloponnesians,  242. 

Pi-sis'tra-tus  makes  himself  tyrant 
of  Athens,  172,  173;  character  of 
his  rule,  173. 

Platae'a,  attack  upon  by  Thebans 
(431  B.C.),  221  ;  its  destruction, 
226;  battle  of,  198. 

Plataeans,  the,  at  Marathon,  186. 

Plato,  at  court  of  Dionysius  I  of 
Syracuse,  261  ;  visits  Dionysius 
the  Younger,  262  ;  life  and  works, 

Plu'tarch,  325. 

Pnyx  (niks),  the,  at  Athens,  i7on.3. 
Po-lyb'i-us,  historian,  325. 
Pol-y-cli'tus,  sculptor,  305. 
Po-lyc'ra-tes,  tyrant  of  Samos,  165; 
fall  of,  180. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY      365 


Pol-yg-no'tus,  painter,  309. 
Po-lyx'e-na,  daughter  of  Priam,  309 

n.  20. 
Pontus,  state  in  Asia  Minor,  286  n.  3. 
Po-sei'don,  131. 
Pos-i-do^ni-a,  158. 
Pot-i-dae'a,   Corinthian    colony,   155 

n.   5 ;  revolt  of,   against   Athens, 

220 ;  captured  by  Philip  II,  267. 
Prax-it'e-les,  306. 
Prehistoric  Age,  defined,  i  ;  in  what 

way   know^ledge    of,    secured,    2 ; 

divisions  of,  2  ;  in  Egypt,  22  ;  in 

Greece,  11 5-1 25. 
Printing,  art  of,  among  the  Chinese, 

103. 
Prod'i-cus,  330  n.  4. 
Pro-me'theus,  the  Titan,  318  n.  2. 
Prop-y-lze'a,  the,  216. 
Pro-tag'o-ras,  330  n.  4. 
Psam-met'i-chus  I,  30,  31. 
Ptol'e-my,     Claudius,     astronomer, 

338. 
Ptolemy    I,    Soter,     291,    292;    II, 

Philadelphus,  292. 
Punjab  (poon-jjib'),  the,  92. 
Py'los,  seized  and  fortified  by  the 

Athenians,  226,  227. 
Pyramids,  the,  24 ;  as  tombs,  39. 
Pyramid  Kings,  24,  25. 
Pyr'rho,  the  skeptic,  ^j^- 
Py-thag'o-ras,  328. 
Pyth'i-a,  the,  133. 
Pythian  games,  135. 

Races  of  mankind,  14-17  and  notes  ; 
table  of,  19. 

Ra-me'ses  II,  28-30;  mummy  of,  ;^8. 

Re-ho-b5'am,  77. 

Rhe'gi-um,  founded,  158. 

Rhodes,  island,  iii  ;  settled  by  Do- 
rians, 123;  center  of  Hellenistic 
culture,  286  n.  3  ;  school  of  sculp- 
ture at,  307. 

Rosetta  Stone,  the,  34. 

Sabbath,  Babylonian    rest  day,  60, 

61  n.  12. 
Sacred   War,    First,    137;    Second, 

269;  Third,  270. 
Sa'is,  31. 

SaFa-mis,  battle  of,  197. 
Salamis,  island,  1 11. 
Samaria,  captured  by  Sargon  II,  63. 


Sa'mos,  island,  iii. 

Samson,  Hebrew  hero,  75. 

Sappho  (safTo),  314. 

Sar'a-cus,  last  king  of  Nineveh,  66. 

Sar'dis,  capital  of  Lydia,  89;  cap- 
tured by  Cyrus,  89 ;  sacked  by 
the  Greeks,  183, 

Sar'gon,  I,  49,  50;  II,  reign,  63,  64. 

Sa-ron'ic  Gulf,  in. 

Saul,  king  of  the  Hebrews,  76. 

Scar-a-bas'i,  Egyptian,  36,  43. 

Sco'pas,  306. 

Se-leu'9i-dce,  kingdom  of  the,  290, 
291. 

Se-leu'cus  Ni-ca'tor,  290. 

Se-ll'nus,  quarrel  with  Egesta,  232  ; 
destroyed  by  Carthaginians,  259. 

Sen-naeh'e-rib,  reign,  64,  65. 

Sep'tu-a-gint,  the,  324. 

Ser-a-pe'um,  the,  37  n.  18. 

Sesostris.     See  Katneses  II. 

Set,  Egyptian  god,  36.  , 

Se'ti  I,  28,  29. 

Seven  Sages,  the,  327. 

She'ol,  the  Hebrew  underworld, 
81. 

Shepherd  Kings.     See  Hyksos. 

Shirpurla  (shir-poo  r'la),  city,  49 
n.  2. 

Sicilian  Expedition,  the,  232-237; 
debate  at  Athens  respecting,  232- 
234  ;  departure  of,  from  the  Pi- 
raeus, 234  ;  the  end,  235-237  ;  how 
new^s  of  disaster  was  received  at 
Athens,  237,  238, 

Sicily,  Greek  colonies  in,  159; 
golden  era  of  the  Sicilian  Greek 
cities,  263,  264;  affairs  of,  be- 
tween 436  and  413  B.C.,  259-264. 

Sidon,  83. 

Sl-mon'i-des  of  Ceos,  lyric  poet,  315. 

Sip'par,  city,  49  n.  2. 

Siwah  (see'wa),  oasis  of,  276. 

Slavery  among  the  Greeks,  124, 
347»  348. 

Smer'dis,  the  false,  91,  92. 

Socrates,  his  trial  and  death,  247, 
24S;_his  teachings,  330,  331. 

Sog-di-a'na,  conquest  of,  by  Alexan- 
der, 279. 

Solomon,  king,  76,  77. 

So'lon,  his  economic  reforms,  \']\\ 
constitutional  reforms,  172;  spe- 
cial laws  enacted  by,  172. 


366      INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Sophists,  the,  330. 

Sophocles,  tragic  poet,  319. 

Sparta,  location  of,  142;  the  name, 
142  ;  classes  in,  143  ;  Spartan  in- 
stitutions, 144-148;  early  history 
of,  148-150;  two  kings  at,  145 
n.  7;  public  tables,  146;  educa- 
tion of  Spartan  youth,  147,  148; 
conquers  Messenia,  148-150;  be- 
comes supreme  in  Central  and 
Northern  Peloponnesus,  150. 

Spartan  constitution,  the,  144,  145. 

Spartan  supremacy  (404-371  B.C.), 
244-254. 

Spartans,  number  of,  143;  detach- 
ment of,  shut  up  in  Sphacteria, 
227  ;  their  surrender,  227  ;  import 
of  this  event,  227. 

Spar-ti-a'tae,  the.     See  Spartans. 

Sphac-te'ri-a,  island,  227. 

Sphinx,  the,  25. 

Spor'a-des,  ijie,  iii. 

Stoics,  the,  334,  335. 

Stra'bo,  the  geographer,  337. 

Su'mer,  48. 

Sumerians,  the,  48. 

Su'ni-um,  cape,  216. 

Susa,  capital  of  Elam,  50;  capital 
of  Persian  Empire,  92  ;  taken  by 
Alexander,  278. 

Sut-tee',  loi  n.  4. 

Syb'a-ris,  founded,  158;  destroyed 
by  Croton,  1 58  n.  6. 

Syl'la-ba-ry,  defined,  1 1 . 

Symposium,  the,  features  of,  345. 

Syracuse,  founded,  159;  operations 
of  the  Athenians  at,  in  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War,  236;  under  the 
Dionysian  tyrants,  260-263 ;  its 
golden  era,  263,  264. 

TaFmud,  80. 

Ta'o-ism,  105. 

Taras.     See  Tarentum. 

Tarentum,  Greek  colony,  1 58. 

Tar'ta-rus,  in  Greek  myth,  1 30. 

Ta-yg'e-tus  Mountains,  112. 

Tell  el  A-mar'na,  cuneiform  letters 

discovered  at,  28  n.  11. 
Tello  (or  Telloh),  52. 
Tem'pe,  Vale  of,  107. 
Ten  Thousand,  expedition  of  the, 

245,  246. 
Tha'les,  327,  328. 


Theaters,  Grecian,  description  of, 
299 ;  entertainments  of,  340-345. 

Thebes,  in  Egypt,  ruins  at,  42. 

Thebes,  in  Greece,  seized  by  the 
Spartans,  251;  liberated  by  Pe- 
lopidas,  252  ;  hegemony  of,  254- 
257  ;  destroyed  by  Alexander  the 
Great,  274. 

The-mis'to-cles,  his  character,  190; 
his  naval  policy,  190;  his  agency 
in  convening  the  Council  of  Cor- 
inth, 192  ;  interprets  the  oracle  of 
the  "wooden  walls,"  196,  197  ;  his 
policy  in  regard  to  the  Piraeus 
and  the  Athenian  navy,  200,  201 ; 
his  ostracism  and  death,  201  n.  i. 

The-oc'ri-tus,  poet,  325. 

Ther-mop'y-lae,  battle  of,  194-196. 

Thermopylae,  Pass  of,  the  name, 
I94._ 

The-se'um,  the,  216. 

Theseus  (the'sus),  king  of  Athens, 

Thes'pis,  tragic  poet,  316. 
Thes'sa-ly,  description  of,  107. 
The'tes,  172. 
Thirty  Tyrants,  the,  at  Athens,  244, 

245- 

Thirty  Years'  Truce,  the,  208,  209. 

Thoth'mes  III,  27,  28. 

Thras-y-bu'lus,  tyrant  of  Miletus, 
164. 

Thu-cyd'i-des,  the  historian,  char- 
acter of  the  speeches  in  his  history, 
223  n.  I  ;  banished  from  Athens, 
322  ;  his  history,  322. 

Tig'lath  Pi-le'ser  III,  51  ;  his  reign, 

63- 
Tigris,  valley  of  the,  46. 
Ti-mo'le-on,     the     Liberator,    frees 

Syracuse  from  the  tyrant  Diony- 

sius  the  Younger,  263 ;  his  death, 

264. 
Ti'mon,  the  misanthrope,  232. 
Tl'ryns,    seat    of    prehistoric    race, 

109,  122  n.  6. 
Transmigration,  Hindu  doctrine  of, 

99,  100. 
Tra-pe'zus,  246. 
Treb'i-zond.     See  Trapezus. 
Tribes  among  the  Greeks,  128. 
Trojan  War,  the  legend  of,  1 18-120. 
Troy,  118.     See  Hissarlik. 
Ty'phon,     See  Set. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY      367 


Tyrants,  the  Greek,  Age  of,  162- 
166;  character  and  origm  of  rule, 
162,  163;  Greek  feeling  towards, 
163;  Sparta's  opposition  to,  163; 
benefits  conferred  by,  165,  166; 
Pisistratidae,  at  Athens,  173,174; 
expulsion  from  Athens,  174,   175. 

Tyre,  besieged  by  Nebuchadnezzar, 
72;  history  of,  83,  84;  siege  of, 
by  Alexander,  275,  276. 

Tyr-tas'us,  149  n.  9. 

Ur,  city  of,  49  n.  2. 

Uruk  (oo'rook),  city,  49  n,  2. 

Ve'das  (or  va'das),  sacred  books  of 
the  Hindus,  99. 

Woman,  social  position  of,  in  Greece, 
342. 


Writing,  invention  of,  10-12;  Egyp- 
tian system,  33,  34;  Chinese,  103.' 

Xan-thip'pe,  331  n.  6. 

Xen'o-phon,  with  the  Ten  Thousand 

Greeks,  246;  his  works,  322. 
Xerxes  (zerks'ez)  I,  reign,  93,  94; 

prepares   to  invade  Greece,   191, 

192;   crosses  the  Hellespont,  193; 

reviews   army  at   Doriscus,    194; 

after  the  battle  of  Salamis,  198. 

Yah-weh  (yah-wa'),  78. 

Zend  A-ves'ta,  95. 

Ze'n5,  the  Stoic,  334. 

Zeus  (zus),  131 ;  oracles  of,  133  n.  9. 

Zeus  Ammon,  oracle  of,  276. 

Zeuxis  (zukslss),  Greek  painter,  310. 

Zo-ro-as'ter,  95. 

Zoroastrianism,  95. 


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